What is the Mark of Love for Your Neighbor?
Spirituality Reflection by Deacon Bill Boyd
(John 13:31-33a, 34-35)
In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells His apostles: “I give you a new commandment: Love one another. 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 one another.”
Vincentians, as we know, this is the greatest of all commandments. Jesus gets to the root of our relationship with God and to sum it up in a few words when a scribe asks Jesus what is the greatest commandment, he pulls his whole teaching and entire way of life into a single summary rule: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength … You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
St. Basil the great tells us, “What is the mark of love for your neighbor? Not to seek what is for your own benefit, but what is for the benefit of the one loved, both in body and in soul.” Vincentians, if we are to love another like God loves us, then, we ask ourselves the question: What does it mean to love God?
First, loving God requires knowing Him, and that knowledge begins with His Word. It may sound easy, but to know Him is to love Him. To love God is to praise Him. lt is written: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” To love God is to put Him first. As we know, the number one commandment is to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” It is an undivided love. God is our highest priority. To love God is to desire Him, to yearn for, His righteousness, His word and His grace. Finally, to love God is to obey Him. Jesus tells us, “lf you love me you will obey what I command”. As we naturally wish to please those in our lives that we love, so as we love God, we should want to please Him and obey his commands eagerly.
No one will say the commandment to love God and one another is easy, but it is certainly not complicated. It demands absolute everything of us, all day every day, but the content of the demand is basic and clear.
Today, we may ask ourselves, what do we long for, what do we love? Love is certainly one of the most abused words in our language. It can suggest pure emotion devoid of feeling. It can imply using another person without any respect or grabbing self-gratification at the expense of others. How strong is my love for God and how am I following His commandment to love one another and in my service to our neighbors. The apostles remind us that to use the word love means to embark on a plan of action on behalf of others. They reveal that love is a precarious undertaking since it implies the obligation to demonstrate love by appropriate action. Love is never passive, never abusive and never self-serving.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus says: “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.”
Vincentians, may we all have in our call of discipleship a wonderful month ahead in loving service to our neighbors.
