1. LOVE EVERYONE
The first characteristic of Christian love is to reach out to
all. It requires to love everyone as God does, without distinction, without
discrimination.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he
makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good ,and sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous. (Mt. 5:44-45) .
Loving everyone starts in loving our neighbor, right now. As Christians we are to love not with some
platonic or idealized love but with a practical love, in a concrete and
effective way right now. Because charity
is a participation in the agape of God so we are able to go beyond the limits
of natural love, by loving even our
enemies and laying down our life for our brothers and sisters
2. BE
THE FIRST TO LOVE
In this love: not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1Jn 4:10)
If we are to love like God and develop the capacity to love
which God has placed in our hearts we must love as he does. He does not wait for us to love Him but has
always in countless ways shown us that
he is the first to love us regardless of our response . Because we were created to be a gift to one
another, when we reach out to others even without any sign of love on their
part , we are just being faithful to our true selves. In imitation of God who
loved us so much we also have to love one another , “beloved since God
loved us so much, we also ought to love one another ( 1Jn.4:11) .Christian love brings us to live the
commandment of love in a radical way.
It leads us to BE THE FIRST TO LOVE. Without waiting for the
other to love, we take the initiative to love the other person. It leads our
heart to love the least lovable: the
poor who because of their poverty cannot repay us in return, (Lk.14:13-14), to
whoever in our home, in our workplace, or in our school who need mercy and forgiveness , attention, care and
concern. To be able to do this , it is important to approach everyone with new
eyes, not remembering any faults or defects but to cover these with love,
forgiveness and mercy. Just like God who forgives and forgets.
3. LOVE AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF
“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 19:19)
Another well-known characteristic of love is expressed in
(Lk. 6:31) “Do to others as you would have them do to you” . If this
alone were practiced, it would be sufficient to make the whole world a great
family .This is the so called “ Golden Rule” which Gandhi translated to mean as “ You and I are
one,I cannot injure you without harming myself”. The gospel says, “Love your neighbor as
yourself” (Mt. 19:19) This command of
Jesus puts us in constant tension, because by nature, we love ourselves, it is
beyond our nature. But because of the gift of charity which is divine and which we receive , we can
really love others. We can love with a Christian love which enable us of truly giving comfort to our neighbors as we
would have ourselves comforted.
4. MAKE
YOURSELF AS ONE
“ I have become
all things to all.” (1 Cor. 9:22)
How can
true love for others be put
into practice? The answer is to Make
Yourself One . To make yourself one with
others means making their thoughts and problems
your own ,sharing in their joys and sufferings, celebrating in their joys and
successes. In order to Make
Yourself one, we have to follow God’s
own way, to be one so much so that he said, “To the weak I became weak,to win
over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some. (1Cor
9:22). God Himself became human like us, to be crucified and forsaken, reducing
Himself to our level in order to show us his immense love. To make yourself one
means we have to be poor in spirit, abandoning ourselves, of our own comfort
when we are called to help someone in need. It means dying to ourselves, to our
own ego and to very material as well as spiritual attachments. When we are
empty , we are able to approach everyone with willingness to learn and to be
the recipient of the goodness of others, to empty ourselves of our own
prejudices, our own worries and concerns. It will further allow us to listen, to understand, and be able to
enter into the hearts and minds of other people.
5. LOVING
JESUS IN EVERYONE
Evangelical
love means we see Jesus in our neighbor. In describing the last judgment: “For
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to
drink… Then the righteous will answer him,”Lord, when did we see you hungry and
feed you, or thirsty and give you drink…?
Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of
mine, you did for me. (Mt. 25:35,40). If Christ is present in everyone,we cannot show any discrimination or
prefer some people over others because of nationality,social condition,personal
attributes or wealth. Christ is behind
every person,he is in each one.