THE WORD
Ac 15,22-31 / Jn 15,12-17
Jesus said to his disciples, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”
IN OTHER WORDS
The Democratic Republic of Congo has four national languages: Lingala, Kikongo, Swahili and
Thsiluba. These unite more than 400 ethnic groups, each one with their mother tongue. Interestingly all four translate “CHRISTIAN” simply as “CHRIST”. In Lingala for example “Nazali mo-KRISTU” means literally “I am a CHRIST”. I nd this very tting because a Christian’s aspiration is to become a Christ. The priest is “alter Christus” which means “another Christ”.
I think, you will agree with me, that becoming another Christ is the goal for us all. Hence we understand the real impact of Christ’s greatest commandment: “Love one another as I love you”. The measure of love is not only as justice requires, nor loving another as yourself, but as Jesus loves us. The New Testament writers, to differentiate this love from the popular Greek vocabularies, chose a rather rare word AGAPE because it signifies “love that tends towards the other”. It surpasses sexual love, lial love or sentimental love. The greatest love of all is to “give his own life for his friends”.
In the beginning the Christians were mostly poor and powerless. They were persecuted, humiliated and even killed in spectacles. How can we explain the unexpected turn of events? The power of love! Christ’s love lived by the Christians was the real force that conquered the Roman Empire. Tertullian, himself a Roman convert of the second century, wrote how his pagan compatriots were struck by Christian witness: “Look,” they say, “how they love one another” (for they themselves hate one another); “and how they are ready to die for each other” (for they themselves are readier to kill each other). Source: CSEL 69; translation is Glover, Loeb edition.
Jesus told those he has chosen to bear fruit. The love that “tends towards the others” pushes us to be sensitive to the needs of our brothers and sisters. Christ’s love is demanding which entails great sacrifices like forgiving as he forgave those who wronged him, even those who betrayed him. If this great commandment were put into practice there would have been no more conflicts, no more war.
- Fr. Xene Sanchez, SVD | Congo, Africa
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
