What makes the Christian religion different from every other religion is love. I'm probably going to get in trouble with the Buddhists and Hindus and Jews and Muslims out there for saying this, but it's true. I'm not saying that other religions don't concern themselves with love (because every religion worth the title does deal with love), but that in Christianity love is the central reality, not just one among a number of other values, and it is given far more importance than in any other religion. This emphasis on love is what sets Christianity far above every other religion because love is the central reality of human life.
Christianity sees the basis of reality as love: the love that constitutes the Undivided Unity of the Divine Trinity pours itself out in creating the cosmos, and then reveals itself in Jesus' redemptive incarnation and sacrifice on the cross. The response of Christians is to return God the love he has shown us. This response manifests itself in the lives of believers sharing the love of God with the world: by living in unity and love with one another, by living the pleasures and pains of ordinary life united to Christ, and, in extraordinary circumstances, by witnessing for the faith to death.
It is said that a people's values can be seen in the god
they worship. For Christians, ``God is love'' (1 Jn 4:8). But a
God who is love seems like a philosophical impossibility.
How can God, who is perfect, transcendent unity be himself love, if
love implies a relation to another? In other words, how can God, who
is completely sufficient in himself and so has no dependence on
creatures, be love, when love necessitates a relation to another?
The resolution of this paradox God himself revealed to us:
God is perfect unity, but he is a unity of three Divine Persons:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is not expressly mentioned
in Sacred Scripture. For an elaboration of this truth, we must look
outside Scripture to the Fathers of the Church. The pre-eminent
doctor of the West, St. Augustine, draws an analogy between human
individuals and God Behold, then, there are three things: he that
loves, and that which is loved, and love (Augustine, De
Trinitate, VIII, 10). He goes on to seek out ways to
fathom the unfathomable and describe the indescribable:
I know not why both the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit should not be called Love, and all together one love, just as
both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is called Wisdom, and
all together not three, but one wisdom. For so also both the Father
is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God, and all three
together one God.
And yet, it is not to no purpose that in the Trinity the
Son and none other is called the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit and
none other the Gift of God, and God the Father alone is He from whom
the Word is born, and from whom the Holy Spirit principally proceeds.
(Augustine, De Trinitate, XV, 17, 28-29; cf. the
Athanasian Creed, doctrine of filioque)
...the ``three persons'' who exist in God are the reality
of word and love in their attachment to each other. They are not
substances, personalities in the modern sense, but the relatedness
whose pure actuality... does not impair unity of the highest being but
fills it out. St Augustine once enshrined this idea in the following
formula: ``He is not called Father with reference to himself but only
in relation to the Son; seen by himself he is simply God.'' Here the
decisive point comes beautifully to light. ``Father'' is purely a
concept of relationship. Only in being-for the other is he Father; in
his own being-in-himself he is simply God. Person is the pure
relation of being related, nothing else. Relationship is not
something extra added to the person, as it is with us; it only exists
at all as relatedness.
....the First Person [the Father] does not beget the Son in
the sense of the act of begetting coming on top of the finished
Person; it is the act of begetting, of giving oneself, of
streaming forth. It is identical with the act of giving. (Joseph
Ratzinger Introduction to Christianity, pp. 131-132; cf.
Augustine, Enarationes in Psalmos 68; De
Trinitate VII, 1, 2.)
Thus, for Christians the very basis of all reality is the loving
communion of persons that is the Holy Trinity.
God is such a superabundance of love that he wanted to share
his love with others, so he chose to create the visible world. All of
creation reflects imperfectly the infinite perfections of God. But
man in particular, God chose to give a special participation in his
being, a special likeness to himself.
God set man over the world over it to rule it and to
participate, though in a limited way, in God's own creativity by
ordering the world through his work:
God made the world good (cf. Gen 1:31). Unfortunately, man
freely chose to disobey the commandment of God. Man chose himself
over God and thus sin entered the world (cf. Gen 3). Sin, which is a
rupture of man's relationship with God, takes from man the filial
image of God that enabled him to love God and to share in God's
eternal happiness. Sin separated man from God. It also brought with
it disunity within man himself: man's body rebelled against his soul,
so that he was now subject to death, and his soul could no longer
exercise perfect dominion over his passions.
The most dominant of his passions was now the desire for
sexual union. In the beginning there was no shame: Adam and Eve felt
no need to cover themselves (cf. Gen 2:25). After sin, however, the
image of God within man, male and female, was obscured, so that he
could no longer sense the expression of personal communion of which
the body was meant to be the substratum. Sexual differences, instead
of expressing the nuptial meaning of the body-- to male and female as
gift for each other-- became a source of confrontation and distrust
because of the inability of the soul to govern the body (cf. John Paul
II. Blessed Are the Pure
of Heart, Boston: St. Paul Books and Media, 1983.)
Even now after the fall, spousal love guarded against lust
retains the interior freedom of the gift. Spousal love contributes
much to man's fulfillment, but it is only a poem of the overwhelming
majesty of the love that God has for man, and that God enables
man to have for God:
We are not made merely for human love, but to love God himself!
Only the infinite love of God can fully satisfy man's heart.
God wishes good for his creatures, who can only be happy by loving
him. So when the fullness of time had come, the Author of all creation
showed the depth of his love by entering into the story.
The Most Holy Trinity: a Union of Love
None of the persons exists in respect to himself alone, but
each exists relatively to the other two:
Each of the persons of the Trinity lives completely for the others;
each is a complete gift of self to the others. The complete
self-giving not only constitutes the individual persons of the
Trinity, but also their inseparable oneness.
Creation
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)
As an individual, man is like God in the rationality of his
soul, including his will and his intelligence. God also inscribed on
man's heart a participation in his divine Wisdom, known as the natural
law, so that he would have a knowledge of the proper ordering of all
creation, including himself, to its ultimate End. Communally man
bears the image of God in his ability to love another-- not only the
love of the male for the female and of the female for the male, but
also to love others in general. Perhaps the greatest of all of God's
gifts to man was a share of his own divine life so that man would have
the ability to do what only God is capable of doing: loving God with
the infinite love of God.
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to
till it and keep it (Gen 2:15)
You have made our hearts for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are
restless until they rest in you. (Augustine, Confessions, I, 1)
God's love impelled him to take action to help his creatures gone astray so when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman (Gal 4:4) Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who was sent for love of mankind:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.... The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (Jn 1:1-5,9-14)
In the last three years of his life, Jesus taught the truth behind the Jewish law (cf. Mt 5:17): the fullness of the truth about man and his place in creation. The morality of Christ is not a set of arbitrary laws designed to keep people from enjoying life. Quite the contrary. Jesus' teachings reveal who man is, and by accepting the truth about oneself, one becomes truly free. This is why Jesus himself proclaimed, ``You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'' (Jn 8:32)
Jesus' teachings unleash life from endless pursuit of self, the cycle of violence of the law of vengeance (`An eye for an eye...') and the exacting observances of Jewish ritual. Christ's shows the purpose of the Jewish law to be service to the truth about man and his life. Jesus thus channels life back to its true and original direction: love of God and love of neighbor. That is why St. Paul says that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law (Rom 13:8)
It is a great tragedy that many non-Christians see slavery, not freedom in the truth of Christ. Perhaps they see Christ presented as an angry, exacting judge and condemner of sinners. The contrary is true, for God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (Jn 3:17, cf. Jn 12:47). Jesus associated himself with sinners despite the reproach of the `good people' of the time (cf. Mt 9:10-13, 11:19, 21:31; Mk 2:15-17; Lk 5:30, 7:34). Among the most moving words of Jesus is the parable of the prodigal son, which portrays God as a loving father welcoming home the wayward son who squandered his share of the family fortune (cf. Lk 15). So while it is true that those who remain in their sin until death will suffer eternally after, Jesus extends his hand to help those who are in sin to repent. Jesus condemned sin, not the sinner. His call is an invitation to reconciliation and to God's love.
Jesus himself became a perfect sign of God's overwhelming mercy by taking on the punishment due to man because of sin and he became the perfect example of his own teaching of the truth about man by embracing the wood of the cross. He emptied himself, becoming weak, taking the form of a slave--abandoning for a little while his radiant, overwhelming majesty-- to win us (individually and collectively), to woo us, to take us to himself and become one with us, to abandon his life for us and to hand over his life to us.
Let's try to be impartial in out reasoning: Could God go further in His stooping down, in His drawing near to man, thereby expanding the possibilities of our knowing Him? In truth, it seems that He has gone as far as possible. He could not go further. In a certain sense God has gone too far! Didn't Christ perhaps become ``a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles'' (1 Cor 1:23)? Precisely because He called God His Father, because He revealed Him so openly in Himself, He could not but elicit the impression that it was too much.... Man was no longer able to tolerate such closeness, and thus the protests began.
This great protest has precise names--first it is called the Synagogue, and then Islam. Neither can accept a God who is so human. ``It is not suitable to speak of God in this way,'' they protest. ``He must remain pure Majesty. Majesty full of mercy, certainly, but not to the point of paying for the faults of His own creatures, for their sins.'' (Pope John Paul II, ``If God Exists, Why Is He Hiding?'' Crossing the Threshold of Hope, pp. 40-41.)
God has revealed himself to the world through the person of Jesus Christ, whose entire life, but especially his passion and death, stand as the archetype of complete self-gift.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. (1 Jn 4:9-10)
Jesus' sacrifice, his passion and death on Calvary, exemplify love. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us (1 Jn 3:16). He gave his life for us freely: ``No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father.'' (Jn 10:18) In following the example of Jesus' love we become truly human.
This is not an evanescent love the waxes and wanes with the whims of emotion. This is everlasting love that gives itself completely, that costs the lover everything, like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Mt 16:45-46).The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 22)
...man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself. (Gaudium et Spes, 24)
The promise of Christ is that if we die to ourselves, we will rise to live eternally with him: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (Jn 12:24). The sign of his veracity is his rising from the grave to a new and radically better life. The entire Christian faith hinges on this historical fact, because if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14). It is the assurance Jesus has overcome the world (Jn 16:33), that love is as strong as death (Song 8:6), that we will find the most profound peace and happiness in sacrifice, that we need not be afraid (cf. Mt 28:5,10).
It is an eternal mystery, an unfathomable paradox, an impenetrable obscurity to human reason, but one that bears out every day: man cannot truly live unless he lives for others.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (Jn 13:34-35)The measure of following Jesus is love, a love that will manifest itself as unity:
I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. (Jn 17:20-23)
Commenting on this passage, the Second Vatican Council proclaimed:
Unity is essential to the followers of Jesus. It is not just a friendliness or a togetherness, but perfect oneness: ``that they may be one even as we are one''--Jesus' followers are to have the oneness of God!Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one... as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself. (Gaudium et Spes, 24)
In other words, Christians should give themselves completely to each other just as do the Persons of the Trinity, who are themselves complete gift of self. By baptism, believers are incorporated into Christ and into each other: For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Cor 12:13), and thus they are to reflect the unity of God. This unity transcends all differences among them-- including race, sex, class, politics-- so that there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28).
This life of unity within us is built up by our receiving Jesus' body and thus being transformed into his body, as he himself commanded on the night before he died: ``Do this in remembrance of me'' (Lk 22:19).
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Cor 10:16-17)
To see past apparent differences among people, we must look with spiritual eyes, not with earthbound eyes of flesh, because it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail (Jn 6:63). In the same way we must look with eyes of the spirit at the bread of the Lord's table, trusting completely his words, words that are spirit and life (cf. Jn 6:63):
[Jesus said:] I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.... As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. (Jn 6:51,57)
So Jesus' giving of himself to us communicates a share in the life and love of the Trinity and forms the basis of the unity of Christians. To sever this artery of God's life by removing oneself from the table of the Lord is to lose the unity that Jesus prayed his disciples to share. That is why St. Paul attributes the divisions among the Corinthians to the fact that when you meet together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat (1 Cor 11:20, cf. 1 Cor 11:29).
In the first millennium of the Lord's coming, Christian unity was inviolate. The second millennium saw the schism between the West and the East. In the middle of this millennium, the Protestant Reformation took place. It has only been since the Reformation that Christians have in any numbers neglected the Lord's table. Since that time the number of sects claiming individual autonomy has grown geometrically.
Despite the signs of that Christian unity is not perfect,
Christ's holiness preserves the essential unity of his Church. It is
not so much having the truth that brings salvation, but
striving to know and practice the truth. Jesus guarantees
that his followers will persevere in their struggle for the truth,
even when their efforts bear no apparent fruit. He merely asks that
they work to overcome their own sinfulness in order to become perfectly
one, so that they form a seed of unity and life for the whole human
race and all of creation.
Man, made in the image and likeness of God, was placed by
God in the visible world to order the world and thus to cooperate in
God's work of creation.
Man's calling to work did not change after he disobeyed
God, it only became more irksome to accomplish. Through grace, which
is the love of God that he has put into our hearts, man's work and
ordinary activities take on a salvific dimension, forming him more
closely in the image of Jesus, and thus uniting him more fully to all
men. (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Laborem Exercens,
greeting)
Through the life of grace, that is, the life of God, to
which Christ restored his followers, they come to share in his priestly
ministry[*] so that in uniting their lives to his sacrifice, they can
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. (1 Pet 2:5)
The world is not evil because it has come from God's hands,
because it is his creation, because Yahweh looked upon it and saw that
it was good (cf. Gen 1:7 ff.). We ourselves, mankind, make it evil
and ugly with our sins and infidelities. Have no doubt: any kind of
evasion from the honest realities of daily life is for you, men and
women of the world, something opposed to the will of God.
On the contrary, you must understand now more clearly that
God is calling you to serve him in and from the ordinary,
material and secular activities of human life. He waits for us
everyday, in the laboratory, in the operating theatre, in the army
barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in
the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work.
Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine hidden
in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to
discover it.
I assure you, my children, that when a Christian carries
out with love the most insignificant everyday action, that action
overflows with the transcendence of God. That is why I have told you
repeatedly, and hammered away once and again on the idea, that the
Christian vocation consists in making heroic verse out of the prose of
each day. Heaven and earth seem to merge, my children, on the
horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you
sanctify your everyday lives.
(Blessed Josemaria Escriva, `Passionately Loving the World' a homily
delivered at the University of Navarre, 8 Oct 1967.
Conversations with Monsignor Josemaria Escriva, 114, 116)
Co-creating
It is not only when Christians participate in `churchy' activities
that they contribute to the spread of the Gospel and the salvation of
souls. All human endeavors, every kind of work, including study, contributes to man's salvation if it is
done for love of God, with all the perfection and concern for others
that that love entails.
Pleasures ordered to the love of God and of neighbor are also worthy matter for Christians to offer to God. As St. Paul tells the Corinthians, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31)
As we identify all we do with Christ, we come to live his life more fully, so that we can repeat with St. Paul, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20)
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 Jn 3:16)St. Paul endangered his life many times in preaching Jesus, before the Romans beheaded him near the Tiber.
Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? (2 Cor 11:24-29)More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. (Rom 5:3-5)
All of the Apostles except St. John, who had resisted fear to remain with Jesus in his crucifixion, were martyred. St. Peter was crucified upside-down on the Vatican Hill, where his body was buried and remains. St. James was beheaded by Herod in Jerusalem. St. Nathaniel was killed by having the skin flayed off his body (in Michelangelo's Last Judgement the glorified Nathaniel holds his skin by his finger). The life and death of each Apostle testifies that he preached and wrote of Jesus' Gospel not for anything worldly such as glory, riches or pleasure, but simply because of the Gospel's truth.
St. Justin, a philosopher scourged and beheaded in the second century for his faith in Christ, makes it plain that martyrdom manifests, not the fading glory of human wisdom, but the splendor of the eternal Father:
There was no one who believed so much in Socrates as to die for his teaching, but not only philosophers and scholars believed in Christ, of whom even Socrates had a vague knowledge (for He was and is the Logos who is in every person, and who predicted things to come first through the prophets and then in person when He assumed our human nature and feelings, and taught us these doctrines), but also workmen and men wholly uneducated, who all scorned glory, and fear, and death. Indeed, this is brought about by the power of the ineffable Father, and not through the instrumentality of human reason. (Second Apology, ch. 10)
Another early martyr was Vivia Perpetua. She was a twenty-two-year-old catechumen (person preparing to enter the Church) when she was arrested in 203 A.D. during the persecution of Emperor Severus. Her father was a pagan. She was still nursing an infant son at the time of her arrest. She was liberally educated and married to a man of high rank. In short, she possessed every advantage of Roman society, yet she looked upon her worldly goods as nothing next to eternal life with her Lord, the crown of the martyrs. Her written account of her stay in prison, partially reprinted here, stands as a powerful witness to the trials she underwent.
A few days afterwards, a rumor was spread that we were to be examined. On hearing this, my father hastened again to the prison I saw at once the deep sorrow depicted on his countenance; he looked pale and emaciated with anxiety He came to me and said:
`My daughter, have pity on my gray hairs; have pity on thy father, if I still deserve to be called by that name. If thou still rememberest, that with these hands I have brought thee up to this the flower of thy age; if I have cherished thee more fondly than any of my other children, do not make me a laughing-stock to men. Look upon thy brothers, look upon thy mother and thy aunt; have compassion on thy darling babe, that cannot survive thee. Lay aside that haughtiness and foolish courage, before thou bring us all to ruin. Shouldst thou perish by the hand of the executioner, which of us shall therefore be able to lift up his head?'
Thus spoke my father, and taking my hands, he kissed them; he threw himself at my feet, and shedding a flood of tears, he called me no longer his daughter, but his lady. A great sadness overpowered my soul at this moving scene, which was much increased when I reflected, that my father was the only person in the family who would not rejoice at my Martyrdom! I endeavored to console him, and said: `My father, grieve not; nothing will befall me upon the scaffold, save what is pleasing to God. Remember that we are all in God's power, not in our own.' Then my father, without uttering a word, went away, weeping as if his heart would break.
The following day, whilst we were taking our meal, some officers suddenly presented themselves, and summoned us to appear before the judge We repaired to the forum The report of our trial had already been spread throughout the city; a vast concourse of people of every rank filled the tribunal one after another we were ordered to mount an elevated platform, whereon was seated Hilarian, the Procurator of the Province. Every one of my companions, when interrogated, generously confessed the Faith. It was now my turn; I was ready to make, without fear or trepidation, the same firm confession of my Faith, when behold, I see my father standing before me with my infant in his arms. He draws me a little aside, and, in a tone of gentlest supplication, he addresses me:
`O my daughter, have pity on thy innocent babe!' Hilarian, the judge, seeing the entreating looks of my father, immediately joins in: `Spare the gray hairs of thy father,' says he, `have' pity on this little infant. Sacrifice for the prosperity of the Emperors!'
`I will not do it,' I reply.
`Art thou then a Christian ?' asks Hilarian.
`Yes, I am a Christian,' I answer.
The boldness with which I made this confession, seemed to embarrass the magistrate Meanwhile, my father did not cease by words and looks to urge me to comply with the command of the judge. But Hilarian, recovering himself, and seeing that all endeavors of persuading me would end in disappointment, ordered one of the officers to send away my father. This officer, in order to enforce compliance with his command, was so bold as to strike my father with his stick. This blow afflicted me more than all I had hitherto endured. I knew how sensibly the disgracefulness of such an act would affect my aged parent, who had never failed to resent the least insult offered to any member of his family. Wherefore, I grieved much more for my father's sake than I would have done, had I myself been publicly beaten with rods.
After this, Hilarian pronounced our sentence, whereby we were all condemned to be exposed to the wild beasts. Our condemnation filled us with the greatest joy, and we returned cheerfully to our prison.
(from Acts of the Early Martyrs, vol. 1, by J.A.M. Fastre, 1873)
Martydom crowns the spires of the Church as the most dramatic act of witness for the faith. Yet, it is the constant press of everyday concerns being united to Christ that brick by brick build the spiritual edifice of Christ's kingdom.
No matter how a Christians dies, he knows that he who endures to the end will be saved (Mt 10:22, 24:13; Mk 13:13), so that with the grace of God he can say with St. Paul I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Tim 4:7)
The life of the promise defies all attempts of human imagination, and is beyond the power of words to express, but we know that we will behold eternally the glory of the radiant majesty of the face of God. Thus will be consummated our union with our Divine Lover.Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. (Jas 1:12)
Christianity is the religion of love. Only in Christianity does God reveal himself to the world by becoming himself human and giving himself to us completely, even to a brutal, ignominious death. Other religions profess belief in God or a divine principle and extoll sacrifice, but in no other religion does God show his love by handing himself over to his creatures as an example of love.
The heart of Christianity is the heart of Jesus Christ, which is both human and divine. Here, the central reality is not some Abstract Principle, some Impersonal Force or some Distant Diety, not some Legalistic, Beancounting Judge or Capricious Emperor. The central reality is a person who's very being is to be a Lover, the person of Jesus Christ. Christ reveals the transcendent love of God and invites us to enter into the most intimate relationship with him.
Without Christ's love, life is selfishness and decay, and man can have no peace within himself. Without love there is only loneliness. With love, men can enter into communion with each other to build true unity and lasting peace. The centrality of love in the Christian religion is its greatness and the simplest way to know its truth. Look within yourself and ask, ``Do I want to love? Do I want to want to love?''
A great deal of the sources, quotations and insights of this article come from the tireless preaching of Pope John Paul II's teachings by Fr. Robert Connor of New York.
For further reading on the love of Christ and how we can respond to it, please see Dom Eugene Boylan's This Tremendous Lover, now published by Christian Classics, Inc., P.O. Box 30, Westminster, MD 21157.
JWK
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13)
St. Jerome tells how the disciples used to carry St. John to Christian meetings when his age prevented him from walking, and how he used to repeat all the time: ``My little children, love one another.'' And when the disciples asked him why he was always saying the same thing, he replied, ``It is the Lord's commandment, and if you keep it, that alone suffices.'' (Commentary on Galatians book III, chap. VI)
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as he is righteous. He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God commits sin; for God's nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.
For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not wonder, brethren, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if any one has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. (1 Jn 3)
There's also a nice quotation from Kierkegaard that's pertinent.