A Thought For The Week Of February 10

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34) Valentine's Day is coming up this week, of course. Like many other special days, Valentine's Day has become hopelessly commercialized - yet another of the so-called "Hallmark holidays" whose primary purpose often seems to be to sell cards and other trinkets. Still, the idea is nice. There's nothing wrong with celebrating romance, and if you have someone to share romance with, that's a blessing. Even those who don't have someone to celebrate romance with can use the occasion to celebrate love - children giving Valentines to their parents and friends, etc., etc. There's a 1965 song that says - with great honesty - "what the world needs now is love, sweet love." That's not something we can argue with easily. When we look at the world around us, love often does seem to be in short supply. Strangely, though, it really isn't. Scripture, for example, tells us that "God is love" - and our faith tells us that God is everywhere, which means that love is everywhere - even in the most unexpected places. But, as he often did, Jesus pushed his disciples one step further. It wasn't enough for those who followed Jesus to simply rejoice in God's love for them. Their love had to be an active love, poured out - because Jesus, who poured himself out in love for the world, was their Lord and their example. As he lived, so should they strive to live. And, as Jesus lived a life of love, so must his disciples live a life of love. Today, that "new command" applies to those of us who follow Jesus today. We are called to love one another. Over the years, I've seen far too many examples of followers of Jesus who fail to do that very basic thing: Christians who insist on judging other Christians, and who feel that they and they alone are the only true Christians. All too often, any of us can start to become convinced that the measure of one's faith is how much like us they are - but it isn't. Perhaps the measure of one's faith is how much love we show for each other. Just as Jesus loved unconditionally, so are we called to love unconditionally. It's not easy. There are, after all, a lot of unlovable people around us. But living by the gospel should never be easy. It should be challenging. I hope we rsie to the challenge in the week ahead! God bless!