Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Prepare the way for the Lord who comes!" The call of John the Baptist resounds in every epoch of history and it is addressed to all who desire to open their heart to God. If we truly believe in Him every day we must prepare the way , indeed we must fling open the doors of our existence to Jesus.
The life of the Precursor of the Apostles shows us than man opens to Christ when he begins to truly love God and neighbour, when he forgets self and escapes from the psychological cage of “ego”. A person who is free, liberated by Christ, will have only one desire: to give himself unconditionally to God and to others.
St John the apostle warns us in his Letter that “Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen. Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother” (1 Jn 4, 20-21). So, paraphrasing we could say that if we desire to love God more, we must love our neighbour more, and vice versa.
The Saints with their testimony show clearly that these two directions of love are inseparable and that intensity of love for God is directly proportioned to love of neighbour. Jesus says clearly in the Gospel that the commandment to love God and the commandment to love neighbour are inseparable.
Saint Bernard, and other saints, stressed the extreme importance of “loving God for God's sake ”. Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus says explicitly speaking of love as service: “many serve Jesus when he consoles them, but few are ready to keep company with Jesus who sleeps amidst the tempest or suffers in the garden of agony. Who will serve Jesus, for Jesus alone?”. Saint Paul speaks of this pure love in the magnificent hymn to charity: “… Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage…” (1 Cor 13, 4-5). We can say that we have charity only when we love disinterestedly, that is when we lose ourselves, our profit.
Those who wish to practice charity must not ask: what do I gain by loving that person? What will I gain from this or that service? Pure love gives itself without calculating. It is like the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee, who bends over Jesus feet and anoints them with precious perfume. And the Lord gives us all a wonderful lesson on disinterested love: “'You see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. For this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.” (Lk 7, 44-47).
In other words: Simon thought of himself, although he had invited Jesus, whereas the woman thought only of Jesus, because she forget herself, she became truly capable of charity!
Charity is true love and so everything which is authentic rotates around it. Also faith is only authentic if we love disinterestedly, otherwise it will be faith weakened by love of self. One decisive discovery on the path of personal conversion has precisely to do with charity. Only if we decide to forget self we have access to true love of God and neighbour, otherwise we remain captives of selfishness, calculation and personal gain.
The Lord wishes us to deal with Him and with our neighbour without a logic of profit, without personal interest. Only those who forget themselves and love, are capable of true love. This love shines all through the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI says this about Mary: “she is, so to speak, totally emptied of herself; she has given herself entirely to Christ and with him is given as a gift to us all.” (Benedict XVI, homily 8 December 2005). Yes, Mary forgot herself, always and totally and therefore made room for Jesus and “with Him - the Pope says - she is given to all of us ”! (Agenzia Fides 23/1/2008; righe 48, parole 765)
