{"id":1272,"date":"2016-04-24T05:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T05:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcmetheology.wpengine.com\/?p=1272"},"modified":"2016-04-24T05:00:38","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T05:00:38","slug":"authentic-love-and-the-discovery-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/authentic-love-and-the-discovery-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Authentic Love and the Discovery of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

The gospel for the 5th<\/sup> Sunday of Easter Cycle C contains one of most powerful admonitions that Jesus offered his disciples:\u00a0 \u201cI give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34).\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019d like to share a true story about a young couple from Chicago that will help explain the profound meaning of this gospel.\u00a0 Peter and Linda were both just 21 years old and had been dating for almost two years.\u00a0 Peter planned to ask Linda to marry him.<\/p>\n

One evening, Peter and a friend were involved in a horrible accident, and Peter was thrown from the car.\u00a0 He suffered a severe concussion and ended up in a deep coma.\u00a0 The doctors told Peter\u2019s family and friends that he probably wouldn\u2019t survive.\u00a0 Even if he did, he would remain in a comatose state.\u00a0 In the sad days ahead, Linda spent all of her spare time at the hospital.\u00a0 Night after night, for three and a half months, Linda sat at Peter\u2019s bedside, speaking words of encouragement to him, even though he gave no sign that he heard her.\u00a0 Then one night, Linda saw Peter\u2019s toe move.\u00a0 A few nights later she saw his eyelash flutter.\u00a0 This was all she needed.\u00a0 Against the advice of the doctors, she quit her job and became his constant companion.\u00a0 She spent hours every day massaging his arms and legs.<\/p>\n

Eventually Linda arranged for Peter to go home.\u00a0 She spent all of her savings on a swimming pool, hoping that the sun and water would restore life to his motionless limbs.\u00a0 Then came the day when Peter spoke his first word since the accident.\u00a0 It was only a grunt, but Linda understood it.\u00a0 Gradually, with Linda\u2019s help, those grunts turned into words \u2013 clear words.\u00a0 Finally, the day came when Peter was able to ask Linda\u2019s father if he could marry her.\u00a0 Linda\u2019s father said, \u201cWhen you can walk down the aisle, Peter, Linda will be yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years later, Peter walked down the aisle of Our Lady of Pompeii Catholic Church in Chicago.\u00a0 He had to use a walker, but he was walking.\u00a0 Every television station in the city covered that wedding, and newspapers all over the country published the story with pictures of Peter and Linda.\u00a0 Celebrities called to congratulate them.\u00a0 People from as far away as Australia sent them letters and presents.\u00a0 And families all over the world with loved ones in comas called to ask them for advice.\u00a0 Today, Peter is living a very normal life.\u00a0 He speaks slowly, but clearly.\u00a0 He walks slowly, but without a walker.\u00a0 Peter and Linda even have a lovely little baby girl.<\/p>\n

The story of Peter and Linda is a beautiful commentary on the words of Jesus in John\u2019s gospel:\u00a0 \u201cI give you a new commandment: Love one another.\u00a0 As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.\u00a0 This is how the world will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d (John 13:34-35)<\/p>\n

If there is one thing that we desperately need in our world today, it\u2019s to rediscover the power of Authentic Love – self-giving love.\u00a0 Jesus is calling us to a relationship with others modeled on his love, a love that Saint Paul describes so well in 1 Corinthians 13.\u00a0 This is a love that we\u2019re never tired of hearing about, a love that we want for ourselves, a love that we are called to extend to others: \u201ca love that is patient, a love that is kind.\u00a0 It is not jealous, pompous, or inflated.\u00a0 It does not seek its own interests, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth, a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things, a love that never fails.\u201d \u00a0The story of Peter and Linda illustrates that this kind of love has tremendous power.\u00a0 It has the power to change the world.\u00a0 It has the power to bring people back from the brink of death to life.\u00a0 It has the power to bring people back from hopeless sickness to perfect health.\u00a0 It has the power to inspire people all over the world and give them new hope, as Linda\u2019s love for Peter did.<\/p>\n

In the early 1980s, an unusual film was playing in movie theaters across the nation.\u00a0 It was called The Quest for Fire<\/em>.\u00a0 Its French producer said that it fulfilled a lifelong dream.\u00a0 He had always dreamed of celebrating in film the discovery of fire, for it was the discovery of fire 80,000 years ago that saved the people on planet Earth from total extinction.\u00a0 It was the discovery of fire that made it possible \"DSCF1884\"<\/a>for them to make tools for survival and to protect themselves from the cold.<\/p>\n

Today, people on the planet Earth are beginning to worry again that we are headed for total extinction.\u00a0 Today, people on the planet Earth are beginning to worry again that we are teetering on the brink of a global disaster.\u00a0 This time, the danger comes not from something basic like the lack of fire, but from something even more basic \u2013 the lack of Authentic Love, the kind of love that Jesus preached, the kind of unfailing, unconditional, self-giving love that Linda had for Peter.<\/p>\n

This makes us wonder and ask ourselves a profound and frightening question.\u00a0 Will someone 80,000 years from now make a movie to celebrate the rediscovery of Authentic Love in the 21st<\/sup> Century?\u00a0 Will someone 80,000 years from now make a movie to celebrate the only thing that saved our planet from extinction?\u00a0 Will someone 80,000 years from now make a movie to celebrate the outpouring for Authentic Love that came forth from the Christian community in the 21st<\/sup> Century and changed the world?\u00a0 Only the future and only the Christian community will be able to answer that question.\u00a0 Only you and I, and millions of Christians like us, hold the answer to those questions somewhere deep down in our hearts.<\/p>\n

This gospel is an invitation for us to look into our heart-of-hearts today and see how we ourselves are answering that question by our own lives of Authentic Love \u2013 especially within our families, for we must begin to change the world in the family, or we won\u2019t change it at all. \u00a0\u201cI give you a new commandment.\u00a0 Love one another, and love them as I have loved you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of Authentic Love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will discover fire.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Teilhard de Chardin<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Deacon Greg Ollick<\/strong> teaches sacred scripture for Saint Joseph\u2019s College Online<\/a>. He is a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of Atlanta and runs The Epiphany Initiative<\/a>\u00a0website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gospel for the 5th Sunday of Easter Cycle C contains one of most powerful admonitions that Jesus offered his disciples:\u00a0 \u201cI give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34).\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019d like to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,14,23,1],"tags":[165],"class_list":["post-1272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-new-evangelization","category-spirituality","category-uncategorized","tag-love"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}