LOVING WITH CHRIST'S LOVE

The first Friday in June is always the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, followed the next day by the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. So I've been reflecting on the lectionary readings and looking at various books concerning lots of different aspects of  the Christian idea of love. Here are just a couple of thoughts that I've found helpful.

 "No longer for themselves"

In the first reading of this morning's mass for the Immaculate Heart of Mary we find Paul writing to the
Corinthians "He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."  (2 Cor 5:15) I spent some time reflecting on the implications of the phrase "no longer live for themselves but for him..." What would my life look like if I lived it according to that criterion of living no longer for myself but for Christ who I find in every single brother and sister in the world? St. Benedict in his Rule insists that we try to see Christ in others and act accordingly. That's something to reflect on as we celebrate the Sacred Heart.

Loving with Christ's Love

Demetrius Dumm, O.S.B. has a section in Cherish Christ Above All: The Bible In The Rule of Benedict that deserves being quoted at length: 

This love of God translated into human idiom is not just human love that has been somehow blest. Rather it is a divine loving that transforms and energizes human loving, so that it is able to do what it could never do alone. This special kind of loving is declared to be the distinctive characteristic  of the true follower of Christ. "I will give you  a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13:34-35).

These words of Jesus have often been understood to mean that Christians must simply imitate the loving Jesus. It is far more likely, however, that the followers of Jesus are being asked to allow the love of Jesus to flow through them for the benefit of others. This is the interpretation of Raymond Brown who writes "...love is more than a commandment; it is a gift, and like other gifts of the Christian dispensation it comes from the Father through Jesus to those who believe in him. In 15:9 we hear 'As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you'; and in both 13:34 and 15:12 the 'as I have loved you' emphasizes that Jesus is the source of the Christians' love for one another. (Only secondarily does it refer to Jesus as the standard of Christian love.)" (The Gospel According to John II, p. 612) 

Therefore, Just a Christians become one with Christ in receiving the Father's love, so also do they become one with Christ in making that love available to others. And it is this radically enhanced loving that becomes the distinguishing mark of all true followers of Christ." Pg. 61

The gift of Christ's love brings with it, then, the urgent responsibility of sharing that gift with others. We certainly see this in the lives of the great saints, both the official ones and the unofficial ones, whose loving intimacy with the Lord moves them to acts of heroic self-giving. So the feast of the Sacred Heart again moves us to no longer live for ourselves but for others.

Celestina: What We're Talking About

The Newark Abbey community, including the monastery, staff and schools, is in mourning at the moment,. On Thursday morning, June 10, Mrs. Celestina Fernando died suddenly at the age of 52. She and her husband have been living in the town house apartment in our Turrell House for more ten years, and working in the monastery refectory and kitchen. Celestina had this quiet, infectious smile that she shared with everyone as she went through her day sweeping the refectory, cleaning bathrooms in the school and so on.

She and her husband came to the U.S. from their native Sri Lanka, bringing with them their Catholic faith and a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. Celestina would find time in her day to slip into church and sit quietly in the back. But her devotions (including, I'm told, a special one to the Sacred Heart) overflowed easily into the rest of her day in her kindness and gentle way of being with others. She was a great example of allowing Christ's love to flow through her to others.

At the same time, it's no accident that the feast of the Sacred Heart is always celebrated on a Friday. Good Friday is an essential part of the story of Christ's love for us. As we experience suffering and pain and loss in our lives, the Sacred Heart reminds us that the mystery of suffering is indeed the driving force in the paschal mystery of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection. We can't understand the purpose of all this suffering and grieving, but we have the assurance that there is a meaning underneath the pain. The Sacred Heart is one way of dealing with God's mysterious way of loving us.    

May the Lord continue to bless us and move us to pass on to others the gift of his divine love.