The Lenten season offers us once again an opportunity to reflect
upon the very heart of Christian life: CHARITY.
This is a favourable time to renew our journey of faith, both as individuals
and as a community, with the help of the word of God and the sacraments. This
journey is one marked by prayer and sharing, silence and fasting, in
anticipation of the joy of Easter.
Chiara often quotes the
Gospel according to St. John, “God is love”. Because God is self-giving, we who
are made into His image and likeness are called beyond generosity, manifested
in the sharing of things, to
self-sacrifice, the sharing of one’s life.
Deeper into its meaning, we are called to a joyful unity with God and with others.God is love, St. John
expressed this in (1Jn.4:7-8) "Beloved,
let us love one another, because love is of God: everyone who loves is begotten
by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is
love”. Love is what God expects of every Christian, because in
Christianity love is everything. St. Augustine said, very emphatically:
Christians are identified by love alone. Those who have charity are born of
God and those who lack it are not born
of God”. St. Paul emphasized what Christ said
during his discourse, “ this
is how all will know that you are
my disciples if you have love for one another”. (Jn. 13: 35)
Loving is good, but knowing how to love has to be learned. Christian love is an art
and therefore must be learned. Our culture rarely seeks to learn the art of
loving, and despite our desperate search for love we end up considering
everything else more important: success, prestige, money, power. We devote
almost all our energy pursuing these goals but make no effort to learn the ART
OF LOVING.
Christ’s Gospel is our guide in the practice of the art of loving. Putting love into real
experiences is an indispensable first
step, a revolution that is both radical and
forceful yet peaceful .
The Art of Loving is challenging. It makes great demands. It
goes beyond the natural love that is
reserved for family and friends. It has
to be directed
toward everyone: sinner or saint, , beautiful and ugly, educated and simple, poor and rich, foreigner or Filipino, Christian or
not, whether friend or foe. Just as Christ , He was the first to love and loved
us even when we are “bad” or sinful. It
is a kind of love which makes us consider the other person as ourselves, if we
make us see ourselves in the other person. In the words of Gandhi: You and I
are one. I cannot injure you without harming myself”.
This kind of love requires that we make ourselves one with
others. It is when we share in their sufferings, joys and pains, that we are able to understand them, which in turn enable us
to serve and help them in an effective and practical way. It is on this basis of love that we are
saved, for whatever we do to the least of our brothers , we have done it
to Christ”.(Mt. 25:40) .