May 23: Love / Amor

Not all stories or parables or fables are meant to be held to a strict “theological” standard. They are often on the edge of what we would call orthodoxy, “right teaching.” Bear with this story and its imperfections:

Once upon a time, a wicked man, about to die, met an angel at what appeared to be the gates to Hell. The angel said to him: “It is enough for you to have done one good thing in your life, and that will save you. Think hard.” The man remembered how one time, as he was walking through a forest, he saw a spider in his path and detoured so as not to step on it. The angel smiled and a spider web came down from the sky, allowing the man to ascend to Paradise. Others, also waiting at what appeared to be the gates of Hell, took advantage of the web, and began to make the climb upward. But the man turned on them and began to push them off, fearing that the web would break. At that moment, the web did break and everyone, including the man, descended downward. “What a pity,” he heard the angel say. “Look at what your concern for yourself has done to the only good thing you ever did.”

“Jesus said, ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.’” John 15, 12

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“Ámense como yo les he amado.” (Juan 15, 12) Estas palabras del Señor nos resultan un poco incómodas. Es relativamente fácil amar a Dios, aunque con frecuencia nos parece que Él está lejos; al menos pensamos que es fácil amarle. Pero se nos antoja muy difícil amar a todos y cada uno de nuestros hermanos y hermanas Es difícil amar a todos sin excepción, incluso al vecino que desquicia nuestros nervios, a la persona aburrida que en el trabajo no nos deja pegar golpe, o al mendigo desaliñado y andrajoso que es demasiado haragán para trabajar… El Señor nos invita a amar como Él nos ama, con el mismo amor que se olvida de sí mismo y se sacrifica.

Para que nuestro amor llegue a ser tan gracioso y gratuito como el de Jesús, que su bendición descienda sobre nosotros y permanezca para siempre.