Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter
I’ll make a bit of a leap and say that it is inherent in our human nature that we are caring individuals. For some it may take more work to emulate Jesus by caring more for others rather than ourselves, but I do believe that, since we are created in the image of God, we are created to care for and love others. I often fall short of this love. Instead, I get caught focusing on my own well-being or caring too much for others rather than letting them grow instead of holding my hand. I’ve learned that in order to love others we must put our faith in God, that our ability to love transcends our own humanity and involves trust to allow God to work through us.
As a campus minister on a college campus, I consistently find myself challenged to keep the best interest of the students in mind when I recognize that I might be caring too much. These are emerging adults with big aspirations who face the challenges of young adulthood and the transition into post-graduate life. Therefore, I often have to stop and ask myself if I am caring for and loving them well or if my desire to care for them calls me to take a few steps back so that they can embrace life’s challenges in order to become more resilient. Stepping back and letting someone stumble may appear as the opposite of love despite the fact that doing so may mean we love others in the image and likeness of God. I trust that parents, husbands, wives, priests, others in significant relationships and vocations can relate.
Today’s Gospel reminds us that the love of God is poured upon us through Christ so that we might live with joy and be more complete. This reminder serves me well amidst how challenging it can be to love others at times, especially when it means I need to take a step back to really show someone I love them even if they can’t recognize it in the moment. I’ve learned that if I embrace these elements of trust and faith to love more fully, I experience an element of the joy Jesus describes as others know of my continued support and celebrate the growth they have achieved in the process. The temptation to become over-involved as an act of love, places too much of the responsibility of love upon ourselves and fails to acknowledge that God has a hand in how we care for others. In many ways I find this analogous to the “yoke” that Peter and the other disciples describe in the first reading as they encourage the Apostles to entrust some of life’s difficulties into the hands of God since our humanity limits or own ability to bear such burdens.
In what ways are you challenged to love and care for others in your daily life? Do you take on the full burden of that love? How might you, as an act of faith, allow God to work with and through you so that you may love in the image of God and embrace the joy of Christ within you? How might you embrace the yoke of love as something that transcends our own humanity as a shared endeavor with God? What burdens might you turn over to God to allow those challenges to be a shared endeavor?
- Mike Bennett