How often does the word “love” find its way into your day to day vocabulary? And what does it mean when you say you love something, or someone?
I think a lot of times, we use the word “love” to describe things that we really enjoy. We might say “I love this song!” when we hear it on the radio, or talk about how we love certain types of food, or places we’ve been to… the list goes on and on!
The same can be true when we say we love another person. We can mean that we love them as a friend, as a member of our family, as someone who is like family, as someone that a person has a romantic connection with… again, the list goes on and on!
The Greeks had four words that they used to describe different aspects of love, which C.S. Lewis does a wonderful job of summarizing in his book The Four Loves. He notes that most often, when the word “love” appears in the Scriptures, as it does in our readings today, that the Greek word used is ágape, which can be translated as charity, or Divine love.
John, in his first letter, gives us a description of this love, when he writes “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” This seems easy enough to understand, but it is what Jesus says in the Gospel that really challenges us to examine how we love others, when he tells us that his command is to love one another as he has loved us.
This seems like a pretty tall order, since we have just heard that Christ showed his love for us by dying on the cross for our sins. How are we supposed to love in this way? Is it even possible? Perhaps not on our own. But, if we continually allow God to challenge us, and to push us to grow in our love for others, we will find that with his help, we can learn to love with the same selfless love that Christ shows us on the Cross. And now, more than ever, this is a love that our world desperately needs!
This weekend, as we celebrate Mother’s Day, I want to extend blessings- not only to all mothers, but also to those who long for the gift of motherhood, and those who fulfill a motherly role in other ways. May the Virgin Mary continue to inspire all Mothers and mother figures by her example.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Steven Huber, CSB