No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Jn 15:9-17
This Sunday I am going to talk about love.
The NT uses two Greek words for “love”: agape and phileos. Agape is unconditional love, while phileos is love between friends. When Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?", Jesus uses “agape”. When Simon Peter answers: “"Yes, Lord; you know that I love you", he uses “phileos”.
Some have interpreted this to mean that Jesus was asking Peter for unconditional love. But after having denied him three times, Peter was not so sure of him-self and so could only offer Jesus the love of friendship. But Jesus accepted Peter’s love all the same.
There are two other Greek words for love which are not used in the NT. They are: eros and storge. Eros is physical love while storge may be used for the love of the parent for the child.
In 1 Cor 13 we find what they call the “Hymn to Love”. It does not define love but enumerates how love is expressed. “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 is patient. Two siblings were quarreling. The mother intervened. She told the younger son to respect his kuya. But she also told the elder son to be patient with his younger brother. What was she in fact telling her eldest? To love his younger brother so much as to be able to bear with him.
When I was teaching Religion to 4th year high school students, we studied the definition of love. It was defined as “the power in us that moves us to go out of ourselves, to give of ourselves for the good of the one loved.”
Love as power means that it gives us the capability of doing something for the one we love, even giving up one’s life.
Jesus said: “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” And he did. That is why the cross is so important for us Christians. It continually reminds us that God loves us.
I read a news item that a mother suffering breast cancer refused chemotherapy because she was pregnant. She chose to put her own life in jeopardy so that her unborn child may live. Love enables us to do heroic things for the sake of the one we love.
Love can be better understood and appreciated using pictures rather than definitions.
The picture of two newly-married couple speaks about love. But the picture of an old couple celebrating their golden wedding anniversary speaks better about what love really is. Love is always being there for the beloved “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”.
I read the story of twins. They were in the hospital nursery. The health of one of them was failing. The head nurse was very concerned. Although it was against normal procedure, she put the weak one in the same bassinet with her twin sister. It was then that the condition of the weak one started to improve. But what was touching was the photo taken of the twins. The arm of the stronger sister was around the shoulder of the weaker one. Does this not speak about the love among brothers and sisters?
In the museum called The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia there is a monumental painting of Rembrandt. It is called the Return of the Prodigal Son. The son leans on his father’s breast while both arms of father enfold the son in a gesture of acceptance and welcome. The prodigal son experiences his father’s love when his father shows him compassion and grants him his forgiveness. When Je-sus told the Parable of the Prodigal Son, all he wanted to say was that God’s love is compassionate and forgiving. And what the Prodigal Son experienced, we too can experience in the confession.
Love can also be better understood and appreciated using stories.
One man kept this particular story in his heart. When they were young, their parents had difficulty in making ends meet. They did not have enough to eat. He never complained but he did feel angry towards his parents for having not enough to eat. Then one day something happened that made him ashamed of himself.
His mother served their meal. She did not eat with them. Since there was not enough food, she tried to divide the food equally. After supper she would stay in the kitchen while the children did their homework. But that particular evening, he went to the kitchen for a glass of water. To his surprise and shame, he saw his mother wiping the inside of the cooking pan with bread and eating it.
Their mother contented herself with the sauce that was left so that they, the children, would have more to eat.
No sacrifice is too great for the sake of the one you love.
Someone observed that real love is a verb. A verb is defined as an action word. What he meant to say was that real love is not just something that you say but above all something that you do. Unless love passes from word to action, that love is probably a fake.
How is our love lately? Is it fake or real? Is it just a word or has it become an action?
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