“This is my commandment:
love one another as I love you.” Jn 15:12
Is the call to
Christianity really that different than other faiths? What does it mean to be
chosen as friends of Jesus? How unique is the Christian idea of brotherly love,
and what exactly have we been chosen to bring to the world?
While there are
similarities among religions, they diverge in the end. Buddhists, for example,
seek Nirvana, a state of complete indifference to the world, because they
believe the world is the source of evil. In contrast, while the Christian
mystics seek detachment from the things of the world also, their ultimate goal
is not emptiness, but the completeness found in divine union with God, who is
love.
Like Christians,
Muslims believe in a God who is omnipotent – but Allah is never father or friend.
In the book “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” John Paul II says, “…the God of
the Koran… is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only majesty, never Immanuel,
God-with-us.”
Christians owe
the Jewish people the very roots of their faith, found in the Old Testament stories
and the prophecies that foretell the Christian promises and give us the image
of a Father God - yet even so, the Jews do not yet believe that God’s promise
to Israel has been fulfilled in the coming of Christ as the Messiah.
Although other
religions contain elements of goodness, Christianity is unique in its belief
that Jesus Christ is God-with-us. We have been chosen, loved, and befriended by
a God who is Love, who came to us and suffered and died for us, and who calls
us to follow Him. It may sound simple, almost trite, to say “love one another”
but remember, we follow a crucified Lord. We are being called love one another
as He has loved us, even to the point of laying down our lives for one another.
Jesus gave His life for us, and He expects us to do the same for one another,
to help Him bring in an abundant harvest of souls for the kingdom. That’s what
makes Christianity different from all other paths.
And what of you?
Will you accept Jesus’s call to friendship? Will you follow Him, even to the
cross? Will you help Him redeem the world?
Comments
Post a Comment