In the last issue I suggested that the call to holiness is a call to embrace a way of living that allows you to unconditionally love others. One of the primary tasks of this present life is to learn how to live in this manner. Since God absolutely and unconditionally loves us, as the heirs to His kingdom we are called to learn how to love others more completely and without any real “conditions”. It seems that we humans have a great tendency to put conditions on our love for others. In doing this we don’t realize how very much we limit our lives. I would ask this question: How is your life limited if you unconditionally love others? When we strive to make unconditional love the way of living, we expand our ability to experience the fullness of life. When we don’t, we severely limit our ability to experience the fullness of life and love.
Jesus clearly revealed to us that the fullness of life is experienced in the process of extending unconditional love to others. We clearly see this in His suffering and death. It as precisely His willingness to unconditionally love that won Him resurrection from the dead. If we attempt to learn how to love even when hatred is directed at us, we begin to truly experience the fullness of life – we begin to truly experience what it means to be a child of God – we begin to understand how much God loves us. We must always remember that we cannot experience God’s unconditional love for us if we are unwilling or unable to extend this same kind of love to others. In simple terms, we can only receive what we are willing to give.
Humans frequently fool themselves into thinking that they can limit their love for others and yet, at the same time, experience the complete love of God. So, it would seem that if we truly want to experience God’s love, we have to be willing to love others.
Humans also frequently fail to realize that if I limit my ability to love anyone, I diminish my actual capacity to love. Which means that I can only give “diminished” love to those
that I may truly desire to love.