There’s a lovely Portuguese proverb which says: “To love God is the greatest of virtues; to be loved by God is the greatest of blessings.” That proverb reflects the key message in our first reading today: “Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us.” That single, simple, profound phrase, “God has loved us”, is both humbling and incomprehensible. Our God who is eternal Love, Creator of our vast universe, and generous giver of all life, embraces us with tender love.
In thinking about God’s tremendous love for us, perhaps we can pause and wonder how apparent is God’s love in our lives? How do we reflect that love? Is God’s love for us a motivation to share love with others?
Recently I saw an interesting short video called “Empathy” that the Cleveland Clinic created as part of their training program for their healthcare professionals. The video soon went viral and became very popular. In the video, you see different people in various situations in the hospital setting. There’s a caption underneath the person in these numerous, silent scenes. Among them:
- One scene shows 2 men on the escalator, one behind the other. As the first man silently passes, it says ‘the tumor was benign’. As the second man passes, obviously worried, the caption reads ‘the tumor was malignant’.
- Another scene shows a young mother reaching through the hole in the incubator to touch her newborn, and the caption reads ‘hoping to hold her today’.
- Another shows a nurse rapidly tending to a patient in the ER. The caption reads: ‘ending a 12-hour shift’.
The whole video is well worth seeing. The point of these and other scenes is to show that everyone has a story and is dealing with something. Being aware and understanding what that person might be feeling, which is the essence of empathy, elevates not only the care given, but most importantly, the human relationship and interaction to a whole different level.
God knows our caption, our story, our situation, and loves us through it all. Empathy is a way we can express that love to others which God has for us. As we encounter people each day, we might wonder and imagine what they’re going through and what they might be feeling. We are being instruments of God’s love as we pray for them. So, too, when we have an opportunity to serve one another, like Jesus did when he fed the 5,000 hungry followers in today’s gospel story, may we be present to others with compassion, empathy, and love.
Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God.
