This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends.
We are His friends. Nonetheless, I don’t consider myself brave. I only can lay my life down in small increments. This is what I think Jesus means by laying our life down for a friend. Of course there are saints that have. Father Maximillion Kolbe is one example. Still, we can do the same thing on a smaller scale.
There is a family at church whose husband for the homeless 5 days a week. The wife is in charge of homeless outreach office at our church. They are a great example of devoting their lives to friends who they had never met before. That is the beauty of loving one another. There are always more people to love.
What if you don’t like people at all?
I know people who say such things but in reality, these people do love but not in the way you think. There are many ways to love one another. One person in my past always said he hated kids, but who did the children come to in the end. They came to this person. We hear that some of our members have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted without any authority from us. There are many pompous and self-gratifying Christians who say to do it their way. Nonetheless, for us the Holy Spirit is the one who makes judgements within us. Salvation is a journey according to Saint Paul. The Spirit tells us that we have to be in the state of grace to be one with God. This takes work by each of us. If we do the work “love” will come out of each of us. Even the grumpiest Christian will love others.
It is my firm opinion that the Holy Spirit can direct us to love others. Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: The were sending love to the faithful in Antioch.
We can pray to the Holy Spirit to direct us and send the love of Christ in us to others. My dentist just lost his dad. My appointment had been delayed because he was out of town at his father’s funeral. Before we even started the procedure, I asked him for permission to hug him. He said it was not a big deal but I think he was looking for that hug. Sometimes just being there is how we show love. My daughter had emergency kidney stone surgery and there was a man in the surgical waiting room whose wife was as there for some very complicated surgery. While we were waiting, we prayed for him and his wife. As a follow up we saw him two later and his wife was doing better but still in the hospital.
Opportunities to love are everywhere every day. Be open to the Spirits lead and Love one another.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
PS: Please Pray for the soul of our beloved Pontiff, Pope Francis and for his successor, Pope Leo. Please Pray for Cancer victims and their caregivers. Pray for the conversion of Russia and the salvation of the Ukrainian and Russian people and their soldiers. Pray for the Holy Land. Pray for peace! The impossible could and can happen. Never deny God.
