Loving without stopping

THAT’S how love is. It is given gratuitously, without cost and calculation. Besides, it is given with utmost generosity. It just gives and gives until it hurts! With this love, we are sure that we would be having the very righteousness of Christ which is actually meant for us, image and likeness as we are of God.

We are reminded of this character of love in that gospel episode where Christ said, “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5,20)

We have to be wary of our tendency to fall into some kind of self-righteousness that distorts the real essence of love, the very core of righteousness. We can say that we are going into the direction of self-righteousness when we are quick to judge, when we do not want to be corrected, when we are highly opinionated and always want to have the last word, when we like to dominate others, when we are notoriously impatient, etc.

That’s why, we should never let go of our duty to be humble and to find ways to make humility always grow and deepen, because that’s the antidote to pride and conceit, the very virus of self-righteousness. It’s humility that enables us to love God and others in the proper way.

To have that kind of humility-fueled love, we should have all our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds have God as the beginning and end. Thus, we have to continually devise ways of keeping God always in mind, and of referring everything to him.

St. Paul, for example, keenly aware of his high dignity and responsibility as an apostle, highlighted the indispensability of humility. “My speech and my preaching was not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the showing of the Spirit and power.” (1 Cor 2,3)

And in another instance, he said that he preached Christ crucified, “a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,” (cfr. 1 Cor 1,23), to emphasize the fact that the real righteousness that comes from God is never triumphalistic according to worldly standards.

The real righteousness that channels the very righteousness of God as shown and lived by Christ always has a refinement that goes beyond our human standards. It’s definitely a refinement that is first of all an effect of God’s grace. It’s something supernatural that purifies and elevates our natural sense of righteousness.

If we study closely the life and example of Christ, we can see that the righteousness he is showing us is one where there is some kind of preferential concern for those who are in error or are lost spiritually and morally. This Christian attitude can be adduced from the parables of the lost coin and the lost sheep. Christ fraternized more with the sinners, precisely because he came not to condemn the world but to save.

Fraternizing with sinners is what we all have to cultivate in ourselves also. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners. This is how true love can develop.

This capacity to fraternize with sinners is first of all a gift from God which we have to take care of and develop. It’s meant to mature us and to involve us in the continuing work of redemption of Christ. It’s not meant, of course, to dilute the teachings of Christ and the very essence of goodness and true holiness.