“...if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? ...And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that?” (Matthew 5:46-47, from today’s Gospel reading)  The call of being a Christian is to love, which most everyone in the world could agree on. So what is distinctive about being a Christian? It is to love as Christ loved us. Jesus did not only love those who loved him. He loved his enemies, even to the point of death, ridicule, rejection. Even to giving the Pharisees “tough love”. Even to loving in silence before false accusations, face-to-face with Pilate and the desertion of most all his closest friends. To know how to love, we must get to know Christ in a deeper way. This Lent, let us admit we are only beginners at love, only amateurs. The word amateurs comes from the Latin word ‘amare’ - to love - and means that we do something only as long as we love it. But when we do something even after we stop loving it...then we can begin to be a professional. Let us be professional lovers who love even when it’s hard. Let us profess our faith of Christ, and His love, in this way.

Prayer:
Let us pray with the words of this song: “Everyday / we go to war again / we assume we know so much more than them / before we hear what they have to say. Headline breaks / we start to hate again / calling them names again / we give our peace away. I hope they see it / cause I wanna see it / I hope we believe it... I wanna see / I wanna see the love. It’s all around you, all around you. I wanna know / I wanna know that love / is all around you / all around you...” (full lyrics)



Action:  
Today, listen to someone’s story whose perspective is very different from your own, either in personal conversation or by listening to a video online. Then, pray with God about how you could love that person and meet them where they are at, in a way that imitates Christ’s love.