“Love Much as you are Much Loved” by Beth DeCristofaro
Brothers and sisters: Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone supposes he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him. (1 Corinthians 8:1b-3)
(Jesus said) But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:
Piety
Study
Jesus heals unwashed, contagious lepers. Jesus feeds the 5,000 people who were silly enough to leave home without a packed lunch. Jesus makes disciples out of outcasts like the Samaritan woman. He forgives and requires his disciples to forgive seventy times seven. He is kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked as is his father, the Most High. Today we read that Jesus wants us to love – actively and specifically – love those who hurt and wrong us. Sometimes it is a wonder that His Holy Church grew as large and deep as it has over the centuries.
Of course, Jesus’ teachings come from and harken back to His relationship with God which he wants to share with us. As Rumi poetically says: “your lamp was lit by another lamp”. We are lit because we have the light of God given to us and the Light of the World to show us the way. In our gratitude for this gift of holy life, we must be mindful always that we constantly receive mercy, forgiveness, and love from the Almighty as does everyone – even those in whom we see little redeeming value.
And yes, love – giving it without hope of recompense or recognition can “hurt” - because we really want both. But the reward! There is a story of an old retreat master who on the first day of the retreat told the retreatants “God Loves you. Now go away and think about that.” On the second morning, he told them “You can Love God. Go think about that.” On the final day, he said: 'Today I have just one thing to say to you. "You are to love one another." Now go away and live this truth as a community.' The pearl of great price, living together in love."[i]
Action
God knows the heart of the other even better than I know my own heart. I am too capable of being inflated by pride and blind to anything other than my own knowledge of the world. Is this how God knows me? Or does God know me in my love for others?
Illustration: Carmelites’ Gods Garden, http://www.carmelites.net/blog/gods-garden-september-10-2018/
[i] A New Harmony The Spirit, The Earth, and The Human Soul, John Philip Newell https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/excerpts/view/21475
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