Today is Mothers Day. If God is Love, then love must be spelled M-O-T-H-E-R.
I have always appreciated the others in my life. I guess that is one of the precious lessons I learned from Ima. As a young student, I loved falling in love with love, the concept. It was with Anabelle that I learned and experienced what true love is.
It always brings a smile to my face remembering falling in love with Anabelle: butterflies in the stomach, lump in my throat, difficulty in breathing, tightness in the chest, wet clammy hands. I loved the feeling. Today, these are the very symptoms that my doctor asks me to look out for to check whether I am having a heart attack! Over the years, I have learned that love, more than the emotion, is a decision; that more than the thrill of romanticism is the realism of daily renewing that vow and commitment to love. Then, love abides; it stays; and there is abiding joy – warm, shimmering, comforting.
Love indeed is a choice. It is a decision. Loving Anabelle has been the best decision ever in my life. One very close friend once remarked accurately: “You cannot count your blessings without starting with her.” My blessings do not stop with her though. If I continue counting my blessings I have to count next the many friends we have – many small circles and communities of kindred spirits and like-minded souls. Friends who have witnessed the flowering of our young love. Friends who have journeyed with us as we grew our respective families. Friends who shared our victories and defeat as we carved our careers. Friends who joined us in our spiritual searching. Friends with whom we served together. Friends who have always been there celebrating the milestones in our lives through the coming of our children, birthdays, graduations, weddings and now -full circle – the coming of the grandchildren. Friends who will forever be in our hearts for they have changed us for the better. Thank God for all our friends
Christ’s Gospel of Love is all-inclusive: everyone is welcome and nothing is ever held back in the giving, even life itself. And yet in many places, believers are often excluded, ridiculed and sometimes persecuted. Christians are the most persecuted group in the world today. The sad thing is that many professed Christians have done their own share of excluding and persecuting others – today and many times in the past. But for our survival as a species, I believe and pray that men learn to live in love. Even Economics, which used to be based on the principle of enlightened self-interest, which is a fancy word for greed and selfishness, is now talking about all-inclusive growth and sustainable development which are the current politically correct words for love and caring – very Christian principles. The world and everyone in it knows that love is the only way we can live as humans.And we knew that the very first moment we felt our mothers’ all embracing and comforting love in the womb. I imagine that the Child Jesus first learned about love in the bosom of Mother Mary.