A challenge to love

by Editor · April 16, 2003

It is a sad fact that many Catholics could not attend some of the solemn ceremonies of the past Holy Week because they felt unsafe to go to church at night.

Look around your neighbourhood and you will almost certainly see that many do not feel safe in their own houses. We have encircled our homes, shops, businesses, hospitals, churches, presbyteries and religious houses with high fences and security gates. These carry the unspoken message to those with friendly as well as with hostile intentions: Keep Out.

These defensive measures stem from the same mind-set that gives a resentful reception to street beggars and those who are trying to keep food on the table by selling common enough objects of little value.

Is the Christian message of unquestioning love of neighbour being stifled in our society? Do we argue unconscionably that “times have changed”?

Times always change. The Christian duty of love and service of others does not. On Maundy Thursday we ritually re-enacted that most humble exercise of service when Our Lord knelt to wash his disciples’ feet: “If I then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you” (John 13:14-15).

It is a colossal yet common mistake to practise acts of charity simply by donating cash to good causes, such as feeding and clothing the needy or donating funds to support children institutionalised by Aids, and leaving it at that. True, this is a laudable way of showing social concern but it is not the Christian virtue of charity.

The theological virtue of charity or agape is far more than natural love. It begins with God’s gratuitous love for his children, which is richly recorded in the Old Testament. It is perfected in the New Testament where God reveals himself as the divine lover who “loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Our Lord’s command that we are to love one another as he has loved us is our challenge to love and serve others selflessly. Such love is a divine gift transcending the purely human level.

How, then, can the everyday Christian, distrustful of neighbour and fearful of the onslaughts of crime and criminals, play the role of the Good Samaritan? Is it not safer to be like the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side?

One must cleanse from one’s mind any thoughts about the imprudence of showing unselfish love for others because they have evil intentions towards us. Relying on God’s unfailing support, we must pray and then decide how best to help someone or some special need known to us. We should seek others to work with us and not be afraid of encouraging willing parishioners to lend a hand. Above all we must get to know and love those we are helping.

St Paul wrote that the love of Christ overwhelms us (2 Corinthians 5:14). If we fail to let it overflow so that we boldly and unconditionally hand it on personally to others, then we fail in our Christian duty of love and service.

Addressing the lawyer to whom he had explained the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus said: “Go, and do the same yourself.” With the joy of Easter and the promises it carries to a sinful world in our hearts, let us follow suit.