WORD ALIVE
There’s a poignant story told when a destructive earthquake hit Turkey some years ago. After the temblor, rescue teams worked frantically, hoping that some people buried under the rubbles might still be alive.
Eight days after the killer quake, miraculously a woman was found alive. So was her three-year-old daughter. How did the frail daughter manage to survive? Throughout the eight days, the mother repeatedly punctured her fingers, letting her child suck the blood coming from them. Through the mother’s heroic act, her child survived!
The story illustrates the sacrificing love of a mother, laying down her life for her child. The story hints the kind of love God has for us.
Jesus says in the gospel of this 6th Sunday of Easter, “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.”
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In this Sunday gospel, we read in the Last Supper that our Lord’s word of love comes as a climax since he was about to die. His word on love becomes his last legacy to us — a legacy he would act out by laying down his life for us literally on the cross and sacramentally in the Eucharist. Moreover, it is a legacy that leads us to do the same thing — to make love our supreme value to lay down our lives for one another.
Though Jesus did not write a neat treatise on the kind of love he was talking about, he did indicate some of the qualities it should possess.
One distinctive quality of that love is the ability to give one’s self for the good of the other or to sacrifice for the other, as the Turkish mother showed in the above story.
But “laying down one’s life for another” belongs to martyrs and heroes. They do not come often in life.
More often love is expressed in the ordinary, day-to-day situations, like being kind when you're feeling irritable, or sharing your time, your effort, even money for one who is in need, or being considerate of other’s feelings.
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The second characteristic of Christian love is universal. Love applies to all. A constant temptation for the Christian is to draw lines in the practice of love: racial lines, religious lines, personality lines. We tend to love those who are “naturally” lovable – the nice people, the attractive, the good-looking.
But how about the unlovable or difficult people who are sharp-tongued, critical and sarcastic? Some of us would wash the feet of our neighbor, only if we were sure that those feet were clean – or even perfumed!
Remember what a writer once said: “Let us love with all our hearts and accept the unlovable side of others, for anyone can love a rose but only a great heart can include the thorns”?
Finally, Christian love is tangible and practical, that is, characterized by concrete acts of service. Someone once said, “They do not love those that do not show their love.” Love must prove itself in deeds.
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There’s a husband I know who was very endearing to his wife, showering her with sweet words. However, he was not doing the needs and sustenance of the family; it’s the wife who did it. It came to a point that the couple broke up.
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Let’s ask ourselves: What legacy of love will we live behind us as our Lord left behind? Can we lay down our life in love by giving up some enjoyment by going out of our way to visit someone who is sick, or one who’s grieving? Can we leave our comfortable life when we lend a helping hand to some poor neighbors or relatives in dire need?
Jesus lives on in our love because he laid down his life on the cross of salvation.
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Appeal: A benefactor to our seminarians once said: “My sons have no vocation to the priesthood so I might as well help others become priests.” How inspiring!
Seminarians are future priests and missionaries. We cannot have them if we don’t support them. ([email protected])