| PART ONE : How Jesus Taught Me to Overcome My Hatred |
| PART TWO : How Jesus Taught Me to
Forgive |
| PART THREE : How Jesus Taught Me
to Love |
|
| HOW JESUS TAUGHT ME TO LOVE |
| Rubbing Gold |
| I asked one of my friends who is a priest, “If
an unknown person ill-treats me or avoids me then I am not at all
bothered. But on the other hand, if a person I know, (friend or relative)
avoids me or illtreats me or rejects me, then it will be very painful
for me. Why is it so and why the difference?” |
| Hearing this, the priest asked me an unrelated question.
“How do you check the purity of gold?” |
| I replied, “First I have to visit a reputed gold
shop, there the shopkeeper will rub the gold against the testing stone
to check the purity of the metal.” |
| The Priest replied, “in the same way you can
check whether you have received the Holy Spirit, God’s love
and Jesus in your spirit.” |
| I ask how it was possible. |
| The priest replied, “If a known person (friend
or relative) ill treats you, avoids you or rejects you, and still,
you can love him, then this is the sign that you have received the
Holy Spirit or God’s love or Jesus in your spirit. On the other
hand if it leads to hatred that means you have not received the Holy
Spirit or God’s love or Jesus in your Spirit.” |
| In this situation if I insist on getting their love,
then this insistence will be there till my death. My adamant character
will be a headache for my family and for my society. Instead of that
if I start to pray for them and thank God for filling their Spirit
with God’s love in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, it
will help me to forgive them and to love them. At the same time it
will bring peace to my family and to my society. |
| I was able to accept my faults and mistakes only when
Jesus showed me that God never punished Eve and Adam in the Garden.
At this stage I asked Jesus, “why is it so?” Then Jesus
pointed out to me one of my favorite parables, (Luke 15:20) “So
he got up and started back to his father. He was still a long way
from home when his father saw him, his heart was filled with pity,
and he ran, threw his arms round his Son, and kissed him. “Father,”
the son said, I have sinned against God and against you, I am no longer
fit to be called your son.” |
| Through this parable and the Lord’s life, Jesus
made it clear that I can accept my mistakes and my faults only when
I see God’s love for Adam and Eve in sending them out of the
Garden. Jesus made it crystal clear that my mind will never allow
me to accept my mistakes when I believe God punished Adam and Eve.
That is the power of God’s love. |
| At this stage I was able to pray for the people who
had given me shortcomings, even though I didn’t know them. This
is the work of Jesus Christ; all merit goes to My Lord. |
| People who live for the Lord. |
| When I examined the people who live for the Lord, one
thing was common in them, that they all tasted God’s love in
Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. |
| I respected and loved Mary, the mother of Jesus, from
my childhood. The respect for her started growing in me when I saw
her through Jesus Christ. Luke 1:34 Mary said to the angel, “I
am a virgin. How, then, can this be?” The angel answered, “The
Holy Spirit will come on you and God’s power will rest upon
you.” Luke 1:38 “I am the Lord’s Servant”,
said Mary, “may it happen to me as you have said.” |
Here Mary never rejected God’s Message through
the angel. She never complained to the angel about her difficulties
or she never prayed for money and other material things like me. Jesus
showed me that I can love the mother of Jesus, Mary only when I stop
praying for money, power, material needs and start praying for the
Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus in my Spirit. That is why Jesus mother
says in John 2:5, “Do whatever he tells you.” Her love
for God influenced me to pray for the Holy Spirit. |
| Paul, at one time persecuted the followers of Jesus.
But when he tasted the love of God in Jesus, he started to live for
the Lord. Ephesians 3:14. For this reason I fall on my knees before
the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives
its true name. I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you
power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves and I pray
that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray
that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you,
together with all God’s people may have the power to understand
how broad and long, how high and deep is Christ’s love. Yes,
may you come to known his love-although it can never be fully known
– and so be completely filled with the very nature of God. |
| Through this word I realized how deep Paul experienced
God’s love in Jesus. Through this word Paul taught me that God‘s
real blessing in the “life giving tree” is Jesus Christ. |
| Saint Augustine, once in search for love, lived like
all other worldly people, but when he tasted Jesus in his Spirit he
rejected the world and lived for the Lord. His famous quotation influenced
me very much. |
“Too late I came to love you, O, Beauty both
so ancient and so new!..
Too late I came to love you and behold you were within me all the
time.” |
| Saint Francis Assisi’s life influenced my life
very much. One day, while Assisi was walking with his friend through
their streets, a guilty person was coming towards them. Then Assisi
told his friend, “If I had not tasted God’s love in Jesus
and Jesus in my Spirit, I would have been in his position.”
Assisi was telling his friend that the guilty person’s only
problem was that, he never tasted God’s love in Jesus Christ
and Jesus in his Spirit. |
| Jesus Christ’s life influenced people like John
Vianni, Don Bosco, Alphonsamma (I am from her home town, Kottayam),
Mother Theresa and the other holy people. |
| It’s only God’s love in Jesus and Jesus
tasted in their Spirit that made these people live for Jesus. Through
their lives these people are asking me to work for God’s love
in Jesus Christ and work to reveal Jesus in my Spirit. |
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