Love
“ On April 16, 2007, the Virginia Tech massacre occurred in which a distraught student went on a shooting rampage, coldly killing fellow students. As many as fifteen were saved from death by an instinctively protective and caring English professor. Liviu Librescu pressed his body against the door to his classroom while he urged his students to jump out a window to safety. This professor, a Romanian Jew who survived the Nazis in his homeland years earlier, died in his classroom after the killer shot through the door that Librescu was holding shut.
Selfless love is real. In spite of the horrors of war and other brutal ways that humans treat one another , love is possible. Unselfish people reside everywhere. They love unconditionally, dedicate themselves to alleviating suffering, are willing to give their all for another, intent on being life-givers and spirit-transformers. These are not do-gooders, holier-than-thou people. No, this kind of love is seared by trials, purified by personal growth, shaped by persistent re-dedication and self-giving that goes beyond required duty. Each day people on this planet open the door of their hearts and love pours forth. No matter how discouraged we might get about the world’s violence and hatred, let us remember that generous love thrives in kind souls and expresses itself daily.
Selfless love does not come about overnight. For most, it takes a lifetime of effort. Yet, nothing is more central to Christian life than other-centered love. This is the first and last vocation of every Christian-to love. Love, and love alone, can make life welcome to us; we can help one another by love, as never before; nothing else can comfort, encourage, be patient and heal, as love can do now. At the end of the day, ask yourself, “ Was everything that was done, done for love’s sake? “
Imagine what life could be like if this love continued to expand, if it moved through our families, out into our neighborhoods and towns. Imagine waves of love continuing to roll, building in intensity, surging across boundaries and borders into other countries, dissolving barriers between people and nations. This Sea of Love grows in scope, in power, until everything in its path is absorbed by it, enlivened and healed by it. Until everything, everyone, is awash in Love. What will our world be like if Love is all there is? Maybe Heaven?
Today, anoint the world, your world- with your love. St Paul says that if we comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge and if we have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, we are nothing. If we give away everything we own, but do not have love, we gain nothing.
St John tells us, “ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God. Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. For this is the message you have heard from the beginning-the one commandment of our Lord Jesus-we should love one another.”
Amen.