WALK IN LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED US
(Ephesians 5:2)
To make
our life grace-filled
As we enter
another year – 2025 – it’s but natural that we look forward in hope that the
year may bring us prosperity, fulfilment of dreams and achievement of goals;
yet we don’t know how the year will unfold for us day by day, week by week and
month by month.
For a disciple
of Christ, the attitude that best characterises our Christian faith is to
entrust the year into the hands of God with a filial trust like that of our Blessed
Mother who, along with he Blessed spouse Joseph, said ‘yes’ to God’s will
without any far-sighted planning. She sanctified every moment of her life with
her ‘yes’ in such manner that every
moment became ‘grace-filled’ for her.
How can we can
make our life grace-filled? The exhortations of St. Paul in his letters are a great
eye opener for us in this direction.
I would like to
refer to his exhortation to the Ephesians: “And walk in love, as Christ loved
us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians
5: 2). Can we take this exhortation seriously if we really wish to make our life
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God and our year beautiful and pleasing to
God?
When he says,
‘walk in love as Christ loved us’ what does he mean? He means that we have to
put into practice the commandment Christ gave us at the Last Supper when he
washed the disciples’ feet: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all
people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”
(John 13: 34).
Abou Ben
Adhem
We all love from
our childhood that beautiful poem Abou Ben Adhem which beautifully
summarises the evangelical truth proclaimed by Christ – that true love of God
is contained and fulfilled in the love of our neighbour:
Abou Ben
Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one
night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within
the moonlight in his room,
Making it
rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing
in a book of old: --
Exceeding
pace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the
presence in the room he said,
“What writest
thou?” – The vision raised its head,
And with a look
made of all sweet accord,
Answered,
“The names of those who love the Lord.”
“And is mine
one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so.”
Replied the
angel. Abou spoke mor low,
But cheerly
still; and said, “I pray thee, then,
Write me as
one that loves his fellow men.”
The angel
wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again
with great wakening light,
And showed
the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben
Adhem’s name led all the rest.
Indeed, we don’t
have to search anywhere for the path to salvation than what Christ has
proclaimed to us in the Gospel and set forth in the two parables of the ‘Good
Samaritan’ (Luke 10: 25-37) and the ‘Final
Judgement’ (Mathew 25: 31-46).
This is the only
way we can make our life meaningful at every moment and experience that joy and
peace which Christ came into this world to give to us and which is his parting
gift when he said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the
world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them
be afraid.” (John 14: 27); “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may
be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15: 11).
The daily
challenge of love
Every day,
rather every moment, the challenge of love is before us as St. Paul describes
it in his letter to the Corinthians 13: 4-7:
-
to be patient and kind
-
not to envy or boast
-
not to be arrogant or rude
-
not to insist on our own way
-
not to be irritable or
resentful
-
not to rejoice at wrongdoing
but to rejoice with the truth
-
to bear all things, believe all
things, hope all things, endure all things.
What a bold assertion
he makes, that miracles of faith, gift of tongues, prophetic powers and unbounded
knowledge and understanding of God’s mysteries are all a “noisy gong or a
clanging cymbal” if we have no love! In eternity, faith and hope will cease to
exist but only love will remain because God is love.
In our daily life,
we cannot rule out misunderstandings, moments of irritation, angry exchanges, loss
of love and broken relationships; but we must remember that these negativities
spring from the devil who tempts us to sin by giving in to our broken human
nature. St. Paul admonishes us: “Be angry and do not sin, do not let the sun go
down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4: 26). If
we retire for the night with anger in our hearts, we are grieving the Holy
Spirit by whom we “were sealed for the day of redemption.” We are giving
opportunity to the devil and jeopardising our salvation.
Therefore, to
sanctify every moment of our life, this is the advice to us:
“Let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you,
along with all malice. Be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
(Ephesians 4: 31-32).
Do we want the
peace of Christ to rule in our hearts? Then we have to put off the ‘old self’ –
anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, dishonesty, and the like and put
on the ‘new self’ – compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience,
forgiveness, and love which binds everything together in perfect harmony (cf.
Colossians 3: 12-17).
Walking in
the Spirit as Jesus did
What does
‘walking in love’ actually mean? It means ‘walking in the Spirit’ as Jesus did.
Our Risen Lord
has poured his Spirit into our hearts so that we too can live Spirit-filled lives
as he lived. His spiritual warfare against the devil took place in the power of
the Spirit. This is manifest during his fasting and prayer in the desert for
forty days and forty nights before beginning his public ministry. He defeated
the devil in the very first encounter but the devil “departed from him until an
opportune time” (Luke 4: 13). This goes to show that the devil never accepts
defeat; he looks for thousand ways to cpature his prey in his snares, and weak
as we are, we fail and fall, but NOT Jesus. He stood strong against the wiles
of the devil until his last breath on the cross, until he could forgive his
enemies and surrender his soul into the hands of his Father having accomplished
his mission.
Every step in
the life of Jesus was guided by the Holy Spirit in perfect agreement with the
Father’s will. This is what we call ‘discernment’. For Jesus, it was a way of
life, not an isolated exercise. He walked in the Spirit; therefore, he walked in
love. This path of discernment led him to the cross, which was the only way to
defeat sin, the devil and death; but the Father raised him up on the third day to
be seated at his right hand in power and glory and to be our Eternal High
Priest who intercedes for us before the Father.
The Nicene
Creed
In the year 2025
we will be celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of
Nicaea (now called Iznik in Turkey) which took place in 325 A.D. and which gave
to the Universal Church the Nicene Creed which we recite on Sundays and
Solemnities.
The Council of
Nicaea was necessitated by the ‘Arian Heresy” which denied the ‘consubstantiality’
of Jesus Christ with the Father. Hence, through the recitation of the Creed,
the whole Church affirms her faith that Christ our Lord is the Eternal Son of
God, eternally begotten, not made and consubstantial with the Father. Through this
affirmation, we proclaim that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is not just a
good ‘teaching’ however profound, but the unique path to salvation which cannot
fail us. We commit our life to him as our way, our truth and our life.
If we make the
Creed (whether Nicene or Apostles’) an indispensable part of our daily prayer
life, we shall always walk in the Spirit and invariably walk in love.