gospel reflection

Today's gospel reading gives us the seemingly simple message: love. It is only through loving others that you will ever know God. I see two ways in which to interpret this statement.

One, "know God" as in understanding the essence of Him. By loving others we will create a world of happiness, joy, and peace for ourselves, which is the same world God creates. Therefore, by loving others, we will have a glimpse of God's love for the world and thereby also know God more through the simple fact of understanding and experiencing Him.

Two, loving others is our ticket into heaven. Therefore, if we would ever like to see heaven and meet God, we need to love. It is strange to think of God as an individual, but if you can imagine it with me for a moment, love is our invitation to God's party (heaven) where we get to meet with Him personally.

Both interpretations, and I'm sure many others, are correct in the simple fact that they are not incorrect. However, it leaves us with a difficult task: love. What does it mean to truly love others? First off, it means not to hate. We can't be jealous of others, or feel egotistically better than others, or, in a perfect definition of love, angered and annoyed by others.

But the world is not always rainbows and butterflies, it's compromise (sorry, song reference). It's about giving compassion when you can, sharing what you have, accepting everyone for the way they are even when you don't understand why they are that way, lending a helping hand to those in need even when you get nothing in return, and giving the utmost respect to everyone equally.

Love is about the simple choices: a smile, a nod, waiting patiently, taking a few minutes to read your younger sibling a bed time story, letting someone else ride shotgun without complaint, offering to do the dishes, hugs, picking flowers for someone. Basically, anything that brings a small bit of joy of tiny piece of heaven into another's life, is love.