As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. –John 13:34-5
As Christian disciples, we are called to love God and others. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the apostles that we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ in a special way: as He loves us. Jesus loves you and I more than we even love ourselves. Imagine that! This is how we are to love: as God loves. Our love is proof of our discipleship. We are called to agape: the unconditional, self-giving love of God.
We could never love as God does without receiving it from Him first. St. Paul wrote that “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). God’s love pours into us through prayer, reading Scripture, and the sacraments. Our love is especially strengthened when we receive the Blessed Sacrament: “As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life” (CCC 1394). St. John Henry Newman wrote that a Christian must be “possessed of the one thing needful, of the spirit of love” (Parochial and Plain Sermons, #23, “Love, the One Thing Needful”).
To love as God loves sounds simple, but it takes perseverance and humility. What we can do is commit each day to loving others in practical ways. Read 1 Corinthians 13 for a Scriptural definition of love in action (“Love is patient, love is kind…”). Then choose one way that you believe God is calling you to grow in love. Then think of one practical way (a means) to live out this aspect of love in a new way. If God is calling you to be less easily angered, you could think of a specific way to manage your temper, such as pausing to breathe deeply when you feel angry. If He is calling you to be more kind, you could commit to doing an act of kindness each day. Whatever you choose, write a sticky note and put it somewhere to remind you of your means to grow in love this week. At the end of the week, reflect on how you carried out your means to grow in love. Give thanks to God for the ways that He helped you.
Come Holy Spirit, link me to the chain of divine love to the Father through the Son. Jesus, present in the Most Holy Eucharist, please strengthen the charity in my heart for You and others.