Scripture Reflection, March 28, 2010: Going the Extra Mile

Scripture Readings:
Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Philippians 2:6-11
Luke 22:14—23:56 or 23:1-49

On March 14 members of the Focolare Movement all over the world celebrated the life of its foundress Chiara Lubich, who passed away two years ago. On this occasion many stories of her rich life were remembered and shared. Reflecting on the readings for Palm Sunday, one of those stories came to my mind. In the midst of the troubles of World War II, Chiara and her friends, all in their mid-twenties, started to take the Gospel seriously and tried to put it into practice in a very concrete way. One sentence struck them in a special way: “Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15, 12-13) Reading the Gospel in the air raid shelters with the bombs falling down on their little city in Italy, this was certainly a very real and serious command. And they understood that Jesus wanted from them an unlimited love for one another; a love that doesn’t measure; a love that doesn’t stop when things get uncomfortable. And they looked in each other’s eyes and promised: “I am ready to die for you.” And they experienced how on this basis their relationships increased in quality and reflected the presence of God to the people around them.

In our time and country it is hard to imagine the struggles of World War II. We live quite comfortably and our security is usually not immediately threatened. But Jesus’ greatest commandment continues to challenge us: “Love one another as I have loved you.” And today’s readings remind us very well what Jesus meant with “AS I have loved you.” Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians: “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God … Rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness.” Jesus, who is the Son of God, became man to restore the relationship between God and humanity. But his message wasn’t well accepted. In Luke’s narrative of the Passion of Christ we can read how Jesus is rejected by the people of Israel because of his teachings. One could ask: “Why did Jesus continue his preaching after he received so many threats? Why didn’t he just stop? Obviously people didn’t think they needed his message of the forthcoming kingdom of God.”

Honestly, I found myself many times in situations like this. I want to do some good, but then I don’t feel welcomed or appreciated for what I do. So I stop and ask myself: “Why am I doing this? People don’t really see and appreciate the good I’m doing – so forget about it.” - Sounds familiar?

Well – Jesus didn’t stop. He did enter Jerusalem, knowing what was waiting for him there: wrong accusations, suffering and death. Wasn’t it foolish to go there in the first place? Yes it sounds foolish, but doesn’t love make us do strange things some times? Love goes beyond the usual kindness. Love makes us go beyond the normal and socially acceptable. Love doesn’t stop when it hurts. Mother Teresa often said that we must love “until it hurts.” She said: “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” Jesus has shown us with his life and his death what real love means. He didn’t stop telling the truth about himself and his message, even when he was tortured and put on the cross. His last action was to forgive the “good thief” and to hand over his Spirit into the Father’s hands.

“Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Maybe during our life-time we will never be in the situation to literally give our lives for our friends. But we are asked to go the extra mile for our brothers and sisters. Love is not only charity and giving away things we don’t need. Love means to give of ourselves, also when it hurts. Like Isaiah we can say that God has given us an ear to hear his message and a tongue to speak his words to the world. And like this prophet we should be a courageous witness to our calling and follow Jesus all the way to the end. If Jesus’ unlimited love for each of us and his death on the cross allows us to go one more step, go one more mile, do one more act of love for our neighbors, then his death wasn’t in vain.

When we hear the Gospel narrative of Christ’s Passion during the celebration of the Eucharist, let us reflect on his love for us and let’s ask God to open our hearts to this measure of love so that we, too, may be Christ’s loving presence for others and love them “until it hurts.”

I want to conclude with the words of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that describe beautifully the type of love that Jesus has shown us and that on this Palm Sunday we are reminded manifest towards our brothers and sisters:

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
(1 Cor 13)

Birgit Oberhofer

(Image by: http://freechristimages.org)