By Fr. Adolf Washington –
In the movie ‘ Fiddler on the roof’, Tevye goes up the roof and keeps asking his wife Goldie repeatedly “Do you love me?”
His wife replies “For twenty-five years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow… After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?
Goldie asks him “If all this is not love, then what is it?”
In contrast, think about a boy who writes a beautiful love letter to his girl friend “Darling, I love you. I will climb the highest mountain for you, dive into the deepest ocean for you, walk through fire for you…”
At the end of the letter below his signature, he writes “NB: Darling, if it is raining today I may not come to see you”.
True love is expressed in deeds, not words.
After the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to many and revealed his resurrection. When he appeared to his disciples, his parting words were that he will send the holy Spirit as a helper to give them strength and courage. Jesus also told them ” If you love me, you will keep my word”. Which means if we really love Jesus we will be real witnesses to this love by our every, thought, word and action in our families, at our work place and with all those whom we meet every day of our life.
Every parable or sermon of Jesus was an oriented to translate love into action. A good measure of Jesus’ three year ministry was spent in doing deeds that expressed his love for others. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, the paralyzed to rise from bed. He comforted the sinner and spent time with those who were socially ostracized.
Saint John stresses on love in action.”My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
Saint Paul’s beautiful discourse on Love focuses on love in attitude and action. In his letter to the Corinthians he says “I f I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (I Corinthians 13).
A man asked his friend who was celebrating his silver wedding anniversary “Do you remember the different meals your wife must have cooked for you these long years?” The friend replied, “She must have cooked over ten thousand meals for me these twenty five years, but I don’t remember even a single menu. All I sure is, every meal had an ingredient of love in it”
So, do as much as you can to love and put love in everything you do.