Today
we return to the Last Supper. Under the shadow of death and in the light of the
Eucharist, the Lord gives a commandment to His followers. For Jesus,
discipleship is defined by love.
Many
of us hang rosaries in our cars. For those who do, it is a token of protection,
a sacramental expression of their faith. In fact, the Prayer for the Blessing
of Rosary provides for it. For me, it is a powerful symbol of discipleship and
a reminder of how much I fall short of the command to love. Shamefully, I am terribly
impatient driver. I hate to admit it but I can probably tick all the squares in
the list of inconsiderate driving. Therefore, with the Cross dangling, it only
puts Christianity and the Church to shame. That is why I refrain from attaching
any Christian symbols on my car because I fail to be a loving Christian. The
only exception I make is to wear a crucifix under my shirt—a reminder of how
poor a Christian I am.
Even
people with no inkling of the teachings of Jesus somehow or rather have come to
expect a higher standard from Christians. This standard is measured by going
the extra mile or turning the other cheek when slapped. This profound teaching
is coming from a Man who did not abandon a wife and a son in order to achieve
enlightenment, like Buddha did. Or kill an Egyptian like Moses did. Or kill
those who disagree with him like the great prophet of another religion. Hence,
the raving lunatic who entered a mosque to kill those “Friday worshippers” is
no Christian by any stretch of the imagination. Whenever Christians are
involved in some altercations, rightly we may hear a comment such as this,
“Aren’t Christians supposed to be loving”?
Sadly
for us, love in our time has degenerated into feelings—good feelings, to be
exact. It is sentimental. How to describe this sentimentality? It is as if one
were in love with the feeling of falling in love which is more of a state of
mind than it is an act of love. This kind of love is inimical to both goodness
and truth. We have imported this sentimentality into the Church. She has to be
nice and non-judgemental. If someone’s soul is in mortal peril, is it love
stand by and do nothing. In the context of salvation, it is not love to be
“kinder” or “less judgemental”, when the motive of our action or inaction is we
are afraid to hurt others with the truth.
The
fact is, truth hurts.
In
order that love be salvific, it requires more than niceties.
By its very definition love is
a word that sacrifices. When Pope Benedict XVI wrote his first encyclical, it
bore the title Deus
caritas est, translated as
“God is love”. In defining what love is, he did not begin with agape, the most distinctive form of love in
Christianity. He even left out the genuine human love for one another, that
is philia. Instead he began by highlighting a love which in
an age of pornographic-saturated internet is erotic. Eros may be a passion that is imposed on us and
seemingly a drive over which we have no control. When you observe a bitch on
heat, you know what that means. On the other hand, the same passion within the
Hellenistic temple setting, is markedly enthusiastic. The etymology of the word
itself tells us that eros is a passion that is to be taken up by God—en
theo. In the context of being drawn into God, there is always a
purgation involved. There will be renunciation for that is the true meaning of
passion or love. In the context of today’s Gospel, the renunciation embraced by
Jesus was to give up His life. In short, there is always an element of dying
when love is true.
Love
and renunciation or sacrifice are two sides of a coin. Some might call it duty
but the presence of so many in JB who are from other states is testament not to
duty but rather to love expressed through sacrifice.
When
there is love, there will be sacrificing or renunciation. The interesting fact
is that even though death is natural, embracing it is almost unnatural. We are
selfish in that way for we are programmed for self-preservation. (Kiasi) Hence, sacrifice or renunciation
which involves a dying to oneself is not really that natural in terms of who we
are. And yet, we instinctively recognise that for great love to flourish,
renunciation is a necessity.
For
that we need to develop our sense of renunciation and sacrifice. When we speak
of “martyrdom”, that is dying for the sake of witnessing to Jesus Christ our
Lord, it means that we have already died many deaths before arriving at that
one moment where we give up our life for Him. Martyrdom does not happen at the
spur of a moment. Hence, to acquire the habit of sacrificing, we need to
exercise the faculty of choosing.
In
the context of good and evil, there is no choice per se, meaning that the
faculty of choosing is not in any way involved. When it comes to good or evil,
hands down, one “chooses” the good and rejects what is evil.
However,
there is choosing involved when the choices set before us are good or better.
Both are goods of differing degrees and if our standard were low, we could just
settle on what is good. Since it does not involve evil, one can choose the good
but in terms of who we are called to be, good is never good enough. Hence to
choose what is better, there is a premium to be paid. That is the sacrifice of
a higher calling or a higher love. To forgo what is good can be painful. And it
does not help that we are addicted to creaturely comforts. That is why we need
the virtues of temperance which is the habit of delaying gratification because
of a greater good and fortitude, the habit of doing the right thing even though
it is difficult or even when we are afraid.
We
are all called to a higher standard. “To love one another” is a commandment to
step up to. According to St Teresa of Calcutta, “True love causes pain. Jesus, in
order to give us the proof of his love, died on the cross. A mother, in order
to give birth to her baby, has to suffer. If you really love one another, you
will not be able to avoid making sacrifices.” It does feel like a commandment
which only the strong are able to embrace. But do not despair as we are
reminded by St Therese de Lisieux that for love to be true, it needs not be
extraordinary, uncommon, heroic or spectacular. “Miss no single opportunity of
making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word;
always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love”.
The
second reading paints a picture of the new heaven and the new earth. The
completed city is not to be found in this world but its beginning must begin in
this world. Its foundation is laid when we all start loving each other as Jesus
has asked us to—a smiling look, a kindly word, doing the smallest right and
doing it all for love.
