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How can love answer so many questions? How can it bring joy to so many persons? How can love be more powerful than death? How can it make people blind to the defects of the beloved? Is it true that deep waters cannot quench love? Is it true that floods cannot wash it away? The answer to all these questions is simple: Because God is love, and those who live in love live in God. God is almighty; love is almighty.
Let us love like Jesus. Let us forgive like Jesus. Let us live and die like Jesus. Let us obey, heal, talk, think, and be like Jesus. The standard for love is not how others love us. The benchmark of love is not what we dislike done to us. Our love is demonstrated by how we treat those who cannot love us in return, and by how we treat those who cannot retaliate.
“If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that?” (Lk. 6:32). With Jesus, may we have the loving courage to say, “Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34).
To love like Jesus is to be happy like Jesus. Those who love like Jesus seek no reward or recompense. Loving like Jesus is the reward in itself. What a joy! What a blessing!
Do you wish to understand how love appears in flesh and blood? Although love is abstract, it can be experienced. Can you visually perceive love? Jesus is the embodiment of love. Whoever sees Jesus sees love personified. He is the incarnation of true love. I have discovered Jesus and felt His tender love in the Church. I have found Jesus in you.
†SOCRATES B. VILLEGAS
July 25, 2003
LOVE LIKE JESUS
