A Norwegian proverb says this …. That which is loved is always beautiful. If you care for a flower, it becomes what it is supposed to be, beautiful. Likewise, if you love a human being who has not known much love, that person can become what they were meant to be - more generous, more patient, more compassionate.
The ideal of beauty is not so much on the “outside” as it is on the “inside”.
If this is true, then how should we treat each other?
In The Help, Kathryn Stockett brings to life the experiences of 12 black maids working for well-to-do white families in Jackson, MS, in the 1960s. Recently graduated from Ole Miss, Eugenie “Skeeter” Phelan, one of the book’s heroes, is interested in telling the stories of these domestic servants (or “The Help”) from their own point of view. Only with great reluctance & much fear do the maids begin to tell of their struggles to raise the children & clean the homes of their employers in an area that continued to uphold
… Jim Crow laws & to insist on segregation of the races.
On of the maids, Aibileen, shares her experiences in the Leefolt household, where she is raising Mae Mobley, a baby girl whose mother is disappointed in her daughter’s plain looks & seemingly slow ways. She chose to ignore her own daughter. To compensate, Aibileen takes every opportunity to show Mae Mobley genuine affection & to encourage her growth & self-esteem. Each day she assures the child, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.” When Mae Mobley was old enough to speak, she repeats the triple affirmation to the maid, to who she also says,
… “You is my real Mama, Aibileen!”
Now lets turn to the Scriptures…..Similar loving affirmation is offered to believers. In the first reading, Luke assures his readers through Peter: You are filled with the Holy Spirit! That pronoun “you” includes Jews as well as Gentiles. Even a Roman soldier like Cornelius was not outside the pale of God’s concerns. Although Peter had not yet fully comprehended the universal embrace of God. Peter was beginning to see that just as God shows no partiality, so should all those whom the Spirit has enlightened welcome every upright believer
… regardless of their origins.
In the 2nd reading, the Johannine community affirms the love of God for us. “You are loved!” This affirmation bears repeating, especially when we find ourselves or others unlovable. “You are loved” means that we have a God-given capacity … greater than ourselves for putting others first. 2 “You are loved” encourages us to enlarge our hearts, to broaden our horizons & to make present God’s for us in acts of loving kindness
… for others.
This love is at the heart of the third affirmation in the Gospel: “You are my friends!” Slaves in the ancient world were regarded as human tools used by their masters for their own purposes. Jesus, who laid down his life out of love, changed slaves to sin to friends. I call you friends, said Jesus.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
Or: I chose you; I love you. Love one another, remain in me and bear fruit
We are also to affirm others. They too are the friends of Jesus.
The very successful Alabama football coach Paul Bear Bryant once said,
“I am just a plow-hand from Arkansas but I learned how to hold a team together…how to lift some men up & calm down others until, finally they’ve got one heartbeat & together become a team. There’s just three things I’d say: If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it.
That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you”.
As Christians, we are not about the business of football (well maybe ND hehe!). Nevertheless, “Friends of Jesus” choose to come together, to share “one heartbeat” … and to live the good news of salvation, that God is love.
This love is Jesus, love incarnate. And Jesus’ love is a total giving to the one being loved. By our love we give joy to others without regard for our own feelings. More deeply, our love is a giving of our very self, in Christ.
This is how we lay down our life for another person.
To be sure, if we are to give such love, we must first know love. We must begin to grasp the depth of God’s love for us-for every part of us. Here at this sacred moment, this Liturgy of God’s Love, we gather precisely to learn, to remember, and to celebrate this love;
and in celebrating we come to know how much we are loved.
Today, while taking all this divine love in, let us focus on the sign of peace. Forget the timid wave-grasp a hand. Make eye contact. Look into the yearnings within the other person. Then, from here, the world is awaiting you, no begging you …. to give God’s love & peace to them.
Love them, Jesus does.
(Sources: Celebration 05/12; Living With Christ, 05/12)