Signs Of God’s Love

There are many definitions of love. Not only in the English language, but in all languages.

You could say that there are as many definitions of love as there are people. And the love any one person shows changes as he grows and as his circumstances change. Even the Church has many definitions of love.

But God defined love when He became human. Jesus showed us what love really means for us, as human beings. And here Deacon Michael shows us what God meant, and means, when He speaks of love.

By Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

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To love one another, Love thy neighbor, is something that has developed in me primarily because of you. This process of doing the daily communion service for 10 years, which is an enormously long period of time, by the way, has forced me to think about my faith constantly. I mean every day.

And more importantly, it has forced me to articulate, and that has been an incredible process of coming to a greater understanding of the teachings of Christ. And it has led to a greater love of the humanity of Christ and of the commandment of loving neighbor.

And it is something that is central to our very existence. I look out among you. I don't know you yet, but I will.

But the thing is when you look out, or when I look out at church on Sunday everybody, I've said this before, can you imagine, well... imagine being a lawyer where people don't like each other, your clients don't like you, the other side doesn't like you, the judge doesn't like you, nobody likes you and you don't like them... and to walk into church and go, "You know, there is not a single person here, on a Sunday, I would not enjoy talking to and having as a friend? Not a single one.”

And then you go and look at the world and you say, "Now, if it's the Catholics, I go to church and I know that I would like them." How can I distinguish between the two: the people that I meet generally and the people I know as Catholics?

I know there's something special about being Catholic. But how do I, and Betty… I'm going to pick on you… how do I say to myself, "She's different. I don't look at her and know automatically I'm just going to really like her because she is Catholic."

Is it what we are commanded to do? Is it to even look at somebody like Betty and to like her. To love our neighbor. To see in her how special she is, just by the nature of who she is. It doesn't matter that she's an old woman, married to a man that likes golf too much. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter skin color. It doesn't matter language. It doesn't matter anything other than that they are a child of God.

And when you get into the position where you start perceiving the world in that manner it changes you. It changes you. You become something different. That something different is what God wants you to be.

And ultimately, isn't that really what Maximilian Mary Kolbe is all about? Ultimately, the way he died, he is the saint of charity. Caritas. Love. Isn't he an example, in extreme circumstances, of the very thing that we are called by God to be. To look at the world and go, "I'm certainly doing a lot better than a lot of these people in this horrible place. I'm not Jewish, so they're not taking me off the to gas chambers. You know, there is a good chance, trusting in the love of God, that I'm going to survive. The Nazis can’t continue forever, but, you know, the probabilities may be that I may be the one in ten that survives. I'm gonna do that."

And then they come along and they're being horrible to this married man who's got children. None of you are even young enough... ah, there you go...you'll be my young man... “he has children and they're going to starve him to death. And look, you know, he's not going to survive anyway. Look at him. He's out of condition. He's short. He's going to die anyway.

"But God, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're saying I have to love him? I have to love him as my neighbor? Oh, unconditional love, too. That's even worse.

"Oh, I'm supposed to be like Jesus? Can't we draw the line there? I'm supposed to die. Is that what He says?"

"No one has a greater love than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Now I like you. I give you that, I like you. I'll be your friend. Lay down my life? For him?"

Yes! That is exactly what we are called to do. That's why he's the saint of charity. The saint of love. That is exactly what we are called to do in our lives. Is to give of ourselves. To give to our neighbor. To do for people.

Is it inconvenient? Yes. But that's what we are called to do. And when you look at the world, and you go through the world, and you go, "Well, the six-thirty crazy group”... no, let's make it more specific... “my family? Yeah, I'll give my life for my family. The six-thirty group? Yeah, I'll do that. For all the people at Sunday Mass? You mean him over there? Okay, you've got a deal.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, everybody I meet in the course of my entire life? I am supposed to love them so much that I'm willing to give my life? Ooo....”

But isn't that what we are called to do? Isn't it a fact, put aside all the problems that we have with our priests, we've got them, it’s undeniable, but isn't one of the things that they do, and Maximilian Kolbe was a priest, is don't they provide us with the sign of what God's love is all about, and what we are called to do?

Isn't it a sign, the religious, the sisters we now have in the school, isn't it a sign to the world of the love that we are called to have? That they a have given up so many of the things that we consider parts of normal life. Are they not exemplars of love?

Yeah, they're human. They're wrong sometimes. They got something that shouldn't get in there. But isn't that what it's all about? Separated. Giving up. Sacrifice. In their instance, literally giving up their lives for others.

In fact, that's what you and I are called to do. And I'm not, believe me, I'm not putting deacons in that category. I know myself too well. I don't belong in that category.

But the reality is that that's what Maximilian reflects. And that is that he is a martyr for charity. The charity by which we are called to live our lives. And by living our lives, to come ever closer to God and to transform ourselves into what God would want to have in his presence for all eternity.

August 7, 2019 2