| Love As I Loved You

In the English language, there’s only one word for “love”.  This can be problematic because that word gets used to describe one’s positive feelings about everything from ice cream to vacation spots to people.  However, in ancient Greek, there are four words for love: storge (familial love), eros (romantic love), philia (love of friends), and agape (unconditional love).

It is this last type of love that the Bible uses to describe God’s love for us – even when we were still sinners (i.e. when we had our backs turned on God), he still loved (agape) us, and proved it by dying for us (cf. Rom. 5:8).  This is what’s beautiful about the Gospel message – Christ’s unconditional love for each of us.  However, the Gospel is also challenging because Jesus instructs us to show the same love for all others in our lives, be they friend or enemy.

This can seem very difficult, and in some cases, impossible to live out – especially if it involves loving someone who has serious hurt us.  But Jesus is well aware of this, and so asks us to rely his strength and ability to love each other as he loved us.

In Christ

Fr. Matthew