A Remarkable Power

Do you ever get frustrated when something breaks and you can't find anyone to fix it? We end up by throwing away so many things because we don't know what to do with them. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have the power to make old or broken things new just by wishing it were so? Well I guess we'd better not wait for that to happen. Things don't happen just because we wish they were so. But we do possess a power to make things new—that is the power of love.

Love is the power behind all that was created. God created the world and ourselves through love. God wanted to share his love and so creation was born. Now we are in a time when God wishes to create a new heaven and a new earth, but this time we are invited to become co-creators with God. It is through the power of love that we become like God. When we love one another and all that God has created, we then bring a wonderful newness to our world.

Birth as a Model

The miracle of human birth is still the prime model for love. When a man and a woman unite in deep and mutual love, they open themselves to the possibility of new life. And when this new life is given to them, they know, without anyone telling them, that what they now have to do and want to do, is to surround that new human life with all the love they can give. And so humanity continues to grow and thrive through the love of human beings for one another.

I say this is the model for all love because when we love one another with a deep and unselfish love, we are helping to create something new—we are helping others to grow as human persons. We are satisfying their deepest need, and at the same time, we are satisfying our deepest need: the need to love and be loved.

Expanding Our Notion of Love

It's important to expand our notion of love beyond just loving those who are closest to us. Now, it's very important to love those who are closest to us. We shouldn't think that it's not. Families and friendships are God's gift to us. The mutual love and support that comes from them is indispensable to our lives. Just as we need food and drink to sustain our physical health, so do we need the love and care of others to keep up our spiritual and mental health. And it is most often in marriage and friendship where we really learn how to love.

But our love must go even beyond those who are closest to us. We are asked by Jesus to become citizens of the universe, caring for those we will never meet and looking after the earth which sustains all life. We love when we participate in programs that help the environment. We love when we join together to further the social and economic status of people who are in great need. There are so many ways in which we can help to bring about a new creation, a new world.

Intensive Care Waiting Room

There are times in our lives where it is hard to forget those words about loving one another. Take for example the experience of being in the waiting room of an intensive care unit. No one has to tell you to love one another when you're there. “The intensive care waiting room is a different world. No one is a stranger. They help one another. They grieve with one another and shed tears of joy together. There is no distinction of race or class. Vanity and pretense vanish. Everything focuses on the next doctor's report or the next telephone call. Here in this anxious stillness it becomes clear that loving someone else is what life is all about” (Herb Miller. Actions Speak Louder Than Verbs).

Life is really like an intensive care unit, or at least should be. Intensive care is what Jesus wants us to bring to one another. Sometimes we find ourselves wondering what we were meant to do with our lives. We may sense that it's time to go in a different direction with our lives, change jobs, or move to a new town or city. Or perhaps we are thinking about a more radical change like getting married or entering religious life. These are important decisions and we should spend whatever time we need to make the right decision.

But no matter where we find ourselves in life, one thing remains the same. We were meant to love one another. So whether we stay where we are, or move, remain single, or get married, enter the priesthood or some form of religious life , we all have the same purpose and the same direction from God: we are all meant to love one another. Intensive care is what we must bring to those who cross our paths.