To Love as Jesus Loves is the Core of the Gospel

Folks, as we have discussed at various times before, Pope Benedict's choice to discuss the meaning of Love as the theme of his first encyclical is no accident. In my humble opinion, it was quite inspired. I want to share with you my own brief meditations on the subject Christian Love.

Biblical departure point

I want to start with the relevant Bible verses, first, from the First Epistle of St. John the Apostle, 4:8:

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. (NAB)

The Apostle tells us that the mark of the Christian is love, that is, agape in Greek, which is self-sacrificial Love. It's not mere sympathy, or empathy, it's not even compassion or "co-suffering"—although the Love the Apostle is talking about would certainly encompass compassion. What this agape-Love means is the willingness of a Christian to give his of her life for another. In the Gospel according to the same Apostle, Jesus himself drove this point home:

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.(St. John 15: 12-13, NAB)

To give Love is then to give oneself as a gift to other, with no reservations, not holding back anything, including one's own life.

The Lord himself backed up his words with his actions. In view of his last Passover, John remarked:

Before the festival day of the pasch, Jesus knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. (St. John 13:1, Douay-Rheims)

I love that statement He loved them unto the end. What came afterward, the last Passover, the first Eucharist in which He gave himself as food and drink; the agony in the Garden, the torture He was subjected to and finally, His death on the Cross. All these were practical illustrations as to how He loved us "unto the end."

The example of St. Maximilian Kolbe

Saint Maximilian Kolbe is one modern example of Christian self-sacrificial, agape-Love. He was a Polish Franciscan priest. According to a short bio published in Catholic Pages.com,

On 17 February 1941, he was arrested and sent to the infamous Pawiak prison in Warsaw. Here he was singled out for special ill-treatment. A witness tells us that in March of that year an SS guard, seeing this man in his habit girdled with a rosary, asked if he believed in Christ. When the priest calmly replied, "I do", the guard struck him. The SS man repeated his question several times and receiving always the same answer went on beating him mercilessly. Shortly afterwards the Franciscan habit was taken away and a prisoner's garment was substituted. On 28 May, Fr Maximilian was with over 300 others who were deported from Pawiak to Auschwitz. There he received his striped convict's garments and was branded with the number 16670. He was put to work immediately carrying blocks of stone for the construction of a crematorium wall. On the last day of May he was assigned with other priests to the Babice section which was under the direction of "Bloody" Krott, an ex-criminal. "These men are layabouts and parasites", said the Commandant to Krott, "get them working." Krott forced the priests to cut and carry huge tree trunks. The work went on all day without a stop and had to be done running --- with the aid of vicious blows from the guards. Despite his one lung, Father Maximilian accepted the work and the blows with surprising calm. Krott conceived a relentless hatred against the Franciscan and gave him heavier tasks than the others. Sometimes his colleagues would try to come to his aid but he would not expose them to danger. Always he replied, "Mary gives me strength. All will be well." At this time he wrote to his mother, "Do not worry about me or my health, for the good Lord is everywhere and holds every one of us in his great love."

Tadeusz Joachimowski, clerk of Block 14A: "In the summer of 1941, most probably on the last day of Juyl, the camp siren announced that there had been an escape. At the evening roll-call of the same day we, ie Block 14A, were formed up in the street between the buildings of Blocks 14 and 17. After some delay we were joined by a group of the Landwirtschafts-Kommando. During the count it was found that three prisoners from this Kommando had escaped: one from our Block and the two others from other Blocks. Lagerfuhrer Fritzsch announced that on account of the escape of the three prisoners, ten prisoners would be picked in reprisal from the blocks in which the fugitives had lived and would be assigned to the Bunker (the underground starvation cell)"

Jan Jakub Zegidewicz takes up the story from there: "After the group of doomed men had already been selected, a prisoner stepped out from the ranks of one of the Blocks. I recognized Fr Kolbe. Owing to my poor knowledge of German I did not understand what they talked about, nor do I remember whether Fr Kolbe spoke directly to Fritzsch. When making his request, Fr Kolbe stood at attention and pointed at a former non-commissioned officer known to me from the camp. It could be inferred from the expression on Fritzsch's face that he was surprised at Fr Kolbe's action. As the sign was given, Fr Kolbe joined the ranks of the doomed and the non-commissioned officer left the ranks of the doomed Firzsch had consented to the exchange. A little later, the doomed men were marched off in the direction of Block 13, the death Block."

The non-commissioned officer was Franciszek Gajowniczek. When the sentence of doom had been pronounced, Gajowniczek had cried out in despair, "Oh, my poor wife, my poor children. I shall never see them again." It was then that the unexpected had happened, and that from among the ranks of those temporarily reprieved, prisoner 16670 had stepped forward and offered himself in the other man's place. Then the ten condemned men were led off to the dreaded Bunker, to the airless underground cells were men died slowly without food or water.

Bruno Borgowiec was an eyewitness of those last terrible days, for he was an assistant to the janitor and an interpreter in the underground Bunkers. He tells us what happened: "In the cell of the poor wretches there were daily loud prayers, the rosary and singing, in which prisoners from neighboring cells also joined. When no SS men were in the Block, I went to the Bunker to talk to the men and comfort them. Fervent prayers and songs to the Holy Mother resounded in all the corridors of the Bunker. I had the impression I was in a church. Fr Kolbe was leading and the prisoners responded in unison. They were often so deep in prayer that they did not even hear that inspecting SS men had descended to the Bunker; and the voices fell silent only at the loud yelling of their visitors. When the cells were opened the poor wretches cried loudly and begged for a piece of bread and for water, which they did not receive, however. If any of the stronger ones approached the door he was immediately kicked in the stomach by the SS men, so that falling backwards on the cement floor he was instantly killed; or he was shot to death ... Fr Kolbe bore up bravely, he did not beg and did not complain but raised the spirits of the others. ...Since they had grown very weak, prayers were now only whispered. At every inspection, when almost all the others were now lying on the floor, Fr Kolbe was seen kneeling or standing in the centre as he looked cheerfully in the face of the SS men. Two weeks passed in this way. Meanwhile one after another they died, until only Fr Kolbe was left. This the authorities felt was too long; the cell was needed for new victims. So one day they brought in the head of the sick-quarters, a German, a common criminal named Bock, who gave Fr Kolbe an injection of carbolic acid in the vein of his left arm. Fr Kolbe, with a prayer on his lips, himself gave his arm to the executioner. Unable to watch this I left under the pretext of work to be done. Immediately after the SS men with the executioner had left I returned to the cell, where I found Fr Kolbe leaning in a sitting position against the back wall with his eyes open and his head dropping sideways. His face was calm and radiant."

The heroism of Fr Kolbe went echoing through Auschwiz. In that desert of hatred he had sown love. Mr Jozef Stemler, former director of an important cultural institute in Poland, comments: "In those conditions ... in the midst of brutalization of thought and feeling and words such as had never before been known, man indeed became a ravening wolf in his relations with other men. And into this state of affairs came the heroic self-sacrifice of Fr Maximilian. The atmosphere grew lighter, as this thunderbolt provoked its profound and salutary shock." Jerzy Bielecki declared that Fr Kolbe's death was "a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength. ...It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp."

Such is the power of the Love of Jesus when it fills the heart of His disciples.

Without Love, we are Nothing

Saint Paul the Apostle also has something to tell us about Love:

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing… So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corithians 13: 1-8, 13, NAB)

St. Paul's words are specific illustrations of what Love is and what it entails in everyday life, for not all believers are called to sacrifice themselves in other's stead. Love is an everyday task, a choice we're called, even empowered to pursue. It consists in the daily death of self for the benefit of the other. In these verses, St. Paul teaches us a Christian program of life.

The example of the Little Flower

St. Thérèse of Lisieux also offers us another example, a "little way" on how to love others with the love of Jesus in everyday life. According to the Wikipedia,

Thérèse is known for her "Little Way." Because of her station in a Carmelite convent, Thérèse realized that she would not be able to achieve "great deeds" as saints often did, and so must find another way to express her love of God. She wrote, "Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love."

This "Little Way" also appeared in her approach to spirituality: "Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises, in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles in the way and a host of illusions round about it, my poor little mind soon grows weary, I close the learned book, which leaves my head splitting and my heart parched, and I take the Holy Scriptures. Then all seems luminous, a single word opens up infinite horizons to my soul, perfection seems easy; I see that it is enough to realize one's nothingness, and give oneself wholly, like a child, into the arms of the good God. Leaving to great souls, great minds, the fine books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because 'only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet'."

It also is evident in her approach to prayer: "For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy; in a word, something noble, supernatural, which enlarges my soul and unites it to God.... I have not the courage to look through books for beautiful prayers.... I do as a child who has not learned to read, I just tell our Lord all that I want and he understands."

St. Thérèse took St. Paul's words and put them in every day practice.

Love is a choice

Finally, we need to understand that Love is not a "feeling" as much as it is a "choice." To Love is to choose to place the needs of others above our own, according to the measure of grace given to us. If we are single, we're called to show this kind of love to our parents, our siblings, our friends and our neighbors; if we are called to live in marital chastity, we are to love our spouse with the perfect, exclusive gift consisting of our very selves, not merely our bodies, but also our minds and souls, in imitation of Christ's love for the Church. Those called to celibate chastity are called to a particular kind of love, in which self-immolation occurs little-by-little, as with St. Thérèse, or all at one time, as with St. Maximilian.

Love endures all things, from the little travails of every day life to the lashes of a Roman or Nazi soldier as it was the case with Our Lord, many of His Apostles, and St. Maximilian Kolbe. Love is shown while dusting, cleaning, doing the dishes, or dying in the throes of a terminal illness, as with St. Thérèse.

We are called to no less. To Love is to choose and then, to do. To Love is to be a Christian, a friend of Jesus and a child of God. By this we will be known as such.