FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER
31. Then, when he had gone out, Jesus said: Now the Son of man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32. If God has been glorified in him, then the God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him without delay. 33.Little Sons, for a brief while, I am with you. You shall seek me, and just as I had said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you are not able to go,’ so also I say to you now. 34. I give you a new commandment: lone one another. Just as I have loved you, so also must you love one another. 35. By this, all shall recognize that you are my disciples: if you will have love for one another. (John 13:33-35)
“You should owe nothing to anyone, except so as to love one another. For whoever loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Heb. 13:8)
We shall share together three points of departure
a) How many ways are there to love my neighbor?
b) What intention should we have in loving a neighbor?
c) How do we love our neighbors with deeds?
We can love a neighbor in many ways. We can love him or her in an ordinary way; or with love of interest; or loving him or her with love of the flesh; or love of the heart. But what kind of love is Jesus talking about in this Fifth Sunday after Easter? Let’s look into each love that has been mentioned.
Ordinary love (kawaida au la kimuambile)
That love which was put into us by God from the time of creation. This is the love we get from our parents, love between brother and sister and the family relatives. It’s that bond the family forges daily to be united in bad and in good times as our ancestors would say blood is thicker than water. “your own is your own!!!…it’s you who know your own!!!…”
Love with interest/ strings attached
It’s that love where we love our neighbor with something to gain out of her or him. You love someone because there is something you are going to benefit out of that person. Nothing is for free, you will pay in the long run for that love, whether you know it or not, you will pay for it. This kind of love has no condition before God even the pagans do so.
Love of the flesh
This love comes in the kind of pleasure you get from the flesh (concupiscence). You love your neighbor because of the way she looks or he looks. Your appetite is always in terms of flesh, the physical appearance and all that come along with what you want to see to please your appetite and desires. It is selfish love, it has no value before God, it is often dangerous even to your own heart and soul.
Love from the Heart
This kind of love comes as a result of loving a neighbor because of the conception of God in you. You see the image of God in your neighbor, that love that was revealed in Jesus. This is the true love for the neighbor, it is the love that was commanded by God.
The challenge that will come out in discovering the kind of love is that now comes with what intentions do you really have in loving? We are all created in the same image of God but what differs is the physical, intelligence, heart that makes the difference of loving this one or the other.
These reasons should not be too big that they cause a big rift between people in general. You love because you love, with no reason to love, because to love with reason is your own creation in your mind of what love, from the subjective level which has ought to develop into objective truth, for in Genesis we:
And he said: “Let us make Man to our image and likeness. And let him rule over the fish of the sea, and the flying creatures of the air, and every animal that moves on the earth”. (Genesis 1:26).
To love a neighbor in this way is to love the image of God in this person. If you think that you love God dearly then know that that God is seen in your neighbor. As an anecdote that says “God could not be everywhere that is why he made mothers”.
We need to love ourselves. For the Lord himself said “They will know that you are my disciples in the way you love each other”. St. Peter is very clear on this when he says “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves. For love covers a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8).
Love pushes God to show us mercy if we ourselves do the same to our neighbor. We read this in the gospel of Matthew “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:7).
How do we love our neighbor with deeds?
In the first letter of St. Peter, it has something to teach us: And finally, may you all be of one mind: compassionate, loving brotherhood, merciful, meek, humble, not repaying evil with evil, nor slander, but to the contrary, repaying with blessings. For to this you have been called, so that you may possess the inheritance of the blessing (I Peter 3:8-9).
The truth of the matter is that to love a neighbor is all about wishing a neighbor well, and avoiding any evil intention from the beginning in our words and acts. Let us put in mind and practice the words of I John 3:18. “My little sons, let us not love in words only, but in works and in truth”.
Let’s us imitate the first Christians. Their love was really very genuine that even the pagans were heard saying “Look at the way the Christians love each other” Let our stand be of… if you have nothing to say about your neighbor, better to keep quiet.
If s/he has betrayed you, hurt you in anyway, forgive him or her from your whole heart, because we too also hope that he will do to us the same way. Love your neighbor the same way you love yourself.
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