Rejoice and be glad! (Psalm 118)

 By Sister Cecelia

There is a saying that things come in threes.  Not long ago, Sr. Patricia and I were involved in a car accident. We were not hurt, but the vehicle was totaled. When I learned that two of our parishioners had also had their cars hit quite recently, we could all sympathize with one another.

In theory we know we can die at any moment, but this accident made me realize just how vulnerable we all are. What goes through our minds at the time and in the days that follow? For me, I felt exceptionally blessed, not just because neither we nor the other driver were physically hurt, but that many people came to our aid in whatever way they could. I know that not everyone has the same experience.




So, what enables some to be so giving and others to seem to turn a blind eye, so to speak, to the needs of others? Haven’t we all been given some abilities to be able to love others, to freely give of ourselves? When the scribe or lawyer asked Jesus what he needed to do to save himself or inherit eternal life, Jesus made the scribe answer the question himself: Love God above all else, and the neighbor as oneself. Perhaps the scribe was really wanting to know who he could exclude from his love.

We are challenged not to only love God above all else but to learn to love as God loves.  It is so easy to fall into despair when we can see our own shortcomings. If we ask ourselves the question “How can I love as God loves?” we might be less preoccupied with our own spiritual safety, or our own perfection, and more in love each day with the God who loves us all, without regard to ethnicity, religion, or other boundaries. Then we won’t have to wait to “inherit” eternal life because we’ll be living it right now.

What does it mean to love as a human does? Attempts to define what it means to be human often translate it as being natural. The two are not synonymous.  War is natural, as are violence and self-aggrandizement. Humanity is magnetized by spirituality, even if unconsciously, by the God within.

Joan Chittister recently wrote: “I have a picture in my mind of nuns putting flowers in the gun barrels of Filipino soldiers in Manila who then refused to shoot into the crowd. I still hold in my heart the sight of a young man in Tiananmen Square standing in front of a moving tank that then turned back. To be human it is necessary… to think again about what matters in life….To be human is to listen to the rest of the world with a tender heart, and learn to live life with our arms open and our souls seared with a sense of responsibility for everything that is.”

         To love as God loves is to love as we can as humans. The psalmist once wrote: “Rejoice and be glad” (Psalm 118:24).   This verse is a call to celebrate and find joy in each day because it is a gift from God. It encourages us to have a positive attitude, focusing on the person of God and God’s faithfulness rather than just our own circumstances. This joy is not merely an emotion—it is a God-given response to God’s presence.




 

Fire hydrant under the car.

 

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