Do You Love Me?

Christ asks each of us the same question, "Do you love me?" Before you answer, think what this entails. For Jesus said,

If you love me, you will keep my commandments....They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them....Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me (John 14:15, 21, 23–24).

"Love" is more than an emotion or feeling. We are called to "love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7). It is Jesus' commandment that we love one another as Jesus loved us (John 15:12). How did Jesus express this love? "No one has greater love than this, to lay lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). "God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them" (1 John 4:16b). Wherever there is love, we experience God's Presence.

Made in the image and likeness of God (Gn 1:26–27), and with God's grace empowering us, we are called to put God's love at the center of all that we are, think, say, and do. Love is the unconditional desire and act of the will for the well-being of every person, including ourselves, and even for those we may consider to be our enemies. We love God by the way we love others, and we learn to love others by the way God loves us—unconditionally, selflessly, compassionately, patiently, generously, mercifully, and sacrificially. We are especially called to love those in need—"Whatever you did for one of these least brothers [and sisters] of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). We may fail many times in that regard but, when that occurs, we acknowledge our failures, rely on God's unconditional love and forgiveness, and ask for God's grace for us to begin to love anew.