Love, a Call to Follow Christ

In theory, we know love. In theory, we know how we need to be as Christians. But life is a little bit complicated, and this basic challenge of Jesus is not easy for us.

When we need inspiration to love, to be good, to do good, and to help others without wanting anything in return, we turn to the source of love, which is the love of God, our heavenly Father. Jesus Christ, who has seen the Father, shows us how we need to love each other.

We can say that there are three groups of people in our lives. One is very small, the group of our close friends. We always have time for them. If they call us, we are able to stop what we are doing and speak with them. We make time for them. If they do something wrong, we are generous towards them, we forgive them, and even advise them for the next time. We know we can rely on these people. We feel good when we are with them and we can speak with them for hours and days on end, share with them and be with them.

On the opposite end is another group of people. We are always upset with them, even if we don’t see them for lengths of time. They provoke us; they challenge us. It would be best never to see them, but they are our brothers and sisters, and we need to be polite with them.

Then, there is that group in the middle, like our friends on Facebook, with whom our encounters are warm and friendly and caring, and with whom we engage on occasion. Other people are in our circle of friends because we perceive that they are good to have around when we need something.

How do we know when we are able to love like Jesus Christ? When we can love the people who are at the opposite end. They need our love. They are crying out, “Hello, I am here.”

This includes adults, as well. They seek this attention because they didn’t receive love when they were small. They feel the absence of this love throughout their life, and they struggle their whole life with this problem. They always feel that they are not accepted, not loved; they have an inferiority complex. They want to belong, to be accepted, to be loved, to be told, “You are top-notch.” These people, however, recognize others who possess this love, and they seek them out and try to befriend them.

Can we judge these people? No, because everybody wants to be loved. Everybody is created in the love of God because we are created in his image, which means that everybody wants to be loved, and everybody wants to love others.

This is the law of God, the law to love. How wonderful it is that we, every one of us, can participate in this wonderful project of God. This is our privilege.

Brothers and sisters, it is also our privilege to love these people who cause us upset. It’s a challenge for me right now as well. But I can hear God telling me: “Milan, they are before you. Come on. Maybe you need to speak less about love in your sermons, your speeches and your interviews, and love more.”

These words are not meant to give us peace. They are meant to invite us to follow Jesus, to grow in love and in the fulfillment of the heavenly kingdom. If you have such people in your life, as I do, then you can thank God for this possibility to grow in love, in holiness, in your vocation, on this path of following Christ.

We have the occasion during the Divine Liturgy to pray for these people: this is the first step. Maybe we are not able to say right now that we love these people. Maybe we do not have this grace right now. But the first thing we can do now is to start to pray for them. Today, Jesus Christ invites us to start to pray for them. This is an important first step, and it is a step that is taken by grace. It is a grace of God to love these brothers and sisters in the same way that we love our closest friends.

This column of the Voice of the Shepherd is based on the homily Bishop Lach preached at Christ the Bridegroom Monastery Sept. 30.
 
As published in Horizons, Oct. 27, 2019.