Love is probably the most used word in our vocabulary. It is also probably the most abused word. When we are young we think that love is a nice feeling. As we get older we come to see that love is also a decision and a commitment.
In the world of Jesus, love is indeed about affection and companionship. But it is also about putting the needs of others before our own, at least sometimes. Charity, which is the way God loves, is loving others for their own sake, for their own good. This is the love a Christian is asked to practice. It is a love that often costs.
Of course in the world of Jesus love of God and love of neighbour cannot be separated. They are both sides of the one coin. One is an expression of the other; one the test of the other. To love God is to love our neighbour and to love our neighbour is to love God. Those who love their neighbour belong to the Kingdom of God whether they realise it or not. This is why we cannot limit the Kingdom of God to a particular religion or church.
The Carmelite mystic, Saint John of the Cross, once said, “In the evening of life we will be examined in love.” When we die the only thing we can take with us to God is the love in our hearts. Everything else we must leave behind. The love in our hearts is all that God will be interested in.
The purpose of life is to learn the art of loving. Perhaps this is what William Blake meant when he wrote, “We are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.” Perhaps too it is what we are being invited to acknowledge and accept during this painful time in our history when the coronavirus is spreading across the world.