Perhaps one of the most challenging and demanding aspects of Christianity is its call to unconditional love of others. I know that this is one of the most difficult things about Christianity. We humans instinctively lash out at our enemies or those who insult or harm us. And yet we see that God has revealed through Jesus that our response to hatred the hatred of others, if it is similar to that which Jesus gave, is transformative. When a person truly engaged in love of others which is unconditional, something happens to them.

It sounds scary, I know. It is against natural instincts, I know. It is not the normal response to hatred that is directed against us. And yet, it is the response that can radically change us into the children of God.

I don’t know of anyone that I have ever encounter that hasn’t been challenged to unconditionally love others. In life we repeatedly encounter people who find fault with us, judge us and try to diminish our feelings of self-worth. If you read the story of Jesus you realize that this all happened to Him.

Jesus is God’s revelation to us about how to respond to the challenges of life. He showed us by the way that He faced the challenges of His life, how we should live if we desire the fullness of life. Instead of respond to hatred with hatred, He chose to love. He also chose to “forgive” those who inflicted pain on Him because He realized that they didn’t know what they were doing. They were only being the products of their own culture and the mores of their society. They revealed to us, however, that we cannot just “go along” with whatever our society embraces but we must govern our lives by the Gospel – we must look to Jesus as we decide how we must live in this present day-and-age. Much hatred fills our world today. We are called not to get caught up in the hatred of our society.