Jesus said to his
disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and
hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who
persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes
his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and
the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and
sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be
perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
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Reflection:
What is genuine love?
It’s a love that doesn’t discriminate a love that embraces everybody including
those who are not lovable to our eyes. The beauty of loving even those who do
not love us is we show them what true love is all about. True love that
emanates from Jesus Himself.
When we love even those
who are not lovable we don’t only give them our unconditional love. We also
teach them to give love, never mind if they will not love us in return. What is
important is we teach them the language of unconditional love so that they
would learn from it and hopefully be converted by it.
But is unconditional love
still relevant today? For many of us today love is a two way street: You love
me and I give you love in return if you will not love me I will not give you my
love. But if this is our mentality the language of true love will not anymore
have life. There would be no more true love and true sacrifice for the person
that we love.
True love or genuine love
therefore is to love without any condition/s and to love without expecting love
in return. Hard to do, right? But if we truly love Jesus we would be able to
freely give love, love which is not bound by the laws of reciprocity. –
Marino J. Dasmarinas
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