Today,
Christ invites us to love. To love without measure, which is the
measure of true Love. God is Love, «who makes his sun rise on
both the wicked and the good, and gives rain to both the just and the
unjust» (Mt 5:45). And man, God's spark, has to keep on
struggling every day to resemble him: «So that you may be
children of your Father in Heaven». Where can we find Christ's
face? On others, on our nearest fellow men. It is very easy to feel
sorry for the starving children in Ethiopia when we watch them on TV,
or for all those immigrants that every day arrive to our shores. But,
what about those at home? What about our co-workers? And what about
that distant relative living alone and whom we could pay a visit to,
to keep her some company? How do we treat others? How do we love
them? What specific deeds of service have we towards them, every day?
It
is certainly very easy to love those who love you. But our Lord is
urging us to go a step further, «If you love those who love
you, what is special about that?» (Mt 5:46). To love our
enemies! To love those we know —for sure— will never
return our affection, or our smiles, or that favour. Simply because
they ignore us. A Christian, truly Christian, should not love “in
an interested” way; it is not enough to give a piece of bread
or our alms to the kid at the traffic lights. We have to give
ourselves to the others. When dying on the Cross, Christ forgave
those who crucified him. No reproach, no complaint, not even a wry
face...
To love without
expecting anything in return. When it comes to loving we need no
calculators. Perfection is to love with no measure. And we hold
perfection in our hands amidst the world, amidst our daily chores. By
doing what we should in every instance, not what we should like to.
God's Mother, at the wedding of Cana, in Galilee, realizes the guests
have no more wine. And she steps in. And she asks the Lord to make a
miracle. Let us beg him to day the miracle of finding it out in the
needs of our own neighbours.
