What is Love?

John 15:16-17 (NABRE): What is Love?

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.

Love is an overused expression that we see romanticized, marketed, and loosely applied to anything that brings pleasure. But what is love in the Christian sense? And what does Jesus mean when he commands us to do it?

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a Catholic nun known for her “little way,” writes in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, about loving the difficult to love. She tells about a cantankerous older nun in her community whom all of the sisters could not stand. This curmudgeon made the lives of those around her miserable. But Thérèse saw this as an opportunity to be the conduit of God’s grace and love. She loved this least desirable person through simple gestures of care and concern. In discussing what Jesus meant about loving others as he has loved us, Thérèse writes the following:

I realise, now, that perfect love means putting up with other people’s shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them. But the point which came home to me most of all was that it was no good leaving charity locked up in the depths of your heart. “A lamp,” Jesus says, “is not lighted to be put away under a bushel measure; it is put on the lamp-stand, to give light to all the people of the house.” The lamp, I suppose, stands for charity; and the cheerful light it gives isn’t meant simply for the people we are fond of; it is meant for everybody in the house, without exception. (The Story of a Soul)

In loving the most difficult person in her convent, Thérèse shows us what Jesus means by loving one another as he has loved us: Jesus chose us to be channels of his love, a love expressed to all, especially the least desirable. There are numerous examples of this throughout Scripture. One example is in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Another, for instance, is in the story of the Prodigal Son. Even more, we see perfect love lived out as Jesus, nailed to the cross and humiliated by the crowds, prays to the Father to “forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Love, in the Christian sense, is without condition and measure; it does not discriminate.

Some of the most hard-won moments of my life have been in guiding behaviorally challenged students with the same kindness and love that I do to others. I try my best, but due to my own callousness and pride, I sometimes fail. And it is in those failures that I learn my most important lessons on love and pray that in the future I can be a better imitator and conduit of Jesus’ love. Where in your life do you see the need for more love and understanding of others?

Loving God, we pray that your grace fill us with the desire to love others as you love us. Our capacity to love is a gift from you, so we pray to be both vessels and channels of that love to those we encounter. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.

Have a blessed week!

Stan