2 Things For Our To Do List

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."

It is not easy to be a Christian.  It probably is one of the hardest vocations that a human being can undertake because it gives us things to do that are so counter-intuitive to how the rest of the world thinks and acts.  Some of the things we are to do even go against the instincts that have become part of the fabric of our collective lives, instincts that have allowed the human race to survive when other want-to-be animals have become extinct.  Jesus charges us with two difficult things in this reading.  He gives us a commandment to love one another as He has loved us. This leads to the second demand we have to fulfill if we are to be considered a Christian.  We are to be ready to lay down our lives for one another.  He showed us what it meant to love as God loves.  He went to the cross and gave up His life so that we might have eternal life.  He gave all he had to give, he held nothing back. We are called to do the same. We are called to light the candle of our lives and burn brightly to chase away the darkness and coldness of the pagan world and to show them that there is a better way.  We have to back up our words with action, for words are empty without actions to back them up. To lay down our life does not necessarily mean we are to physically die, it means we will look to the good of others and be ready to sacrifice, to give up something we want, so that others may have a better life and see that we Christians are people of love and action.  

Lest we become too proud of the fact that we are bright enough to be Christians, Jesus reminds us that no matter what we think, we did not choose Him, He chose us. So on this day, I see the moon outside my window as daylight begins, let us look for one thing that we can do that will make the world in a better place.  Let us lay down our lives for our friends, our fellow creatures, who may not know that the peace of God can be theirs and that their life can be infinitely better. 

Please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory.  Someday, I hope, someone else will take up this cry when I am gone, for there are millions of souls needing our prayers and works of mercy.  Remember them today and they will remember you forever.