What is it that we mean when we tell someone that we love them? There are lots of four-letter words in the English language that people use a lot on a daily basis. Yet the most powerful word for a Christian to say is the word love. For our one word in English, there are three words in the Greek in which the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) were originally written. The word that Jesus used for speaking the word of love in all the times recorded is the word agape, meaning – Feast of Love.
For whatever reason, we certainly know how to feast. I have never attended a function of the Church in which food was involved and there was nothing left over. I think that we certainly got the notice to feed five thousand and have twelve baskets of leftovers! Yet the thing that the world could certainly use a feast of in this moment, probably more so than any other time in history, is a feast of love. A feast of love could set aside a lot of the dull and morbid things we hear about in newscasts. A feast of love is something that we could all do with, and the best part about it is that we do not have to worry about calories or weight gain. A feast of love, once we take part in it, is something that is not only life-sustaining but also something that is life-giving. So, the question is, how do we love? We know it is easy to love the people we like, the people who make us happy to be around. But how do we love those that we do not like? How do we love those people who have done us harm? How do we love those people who know how to irritate us the most? The answer to that question is to love like Jesus. As the Emeritus Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, stated: “God’s love is everywhere, in all things, and that includes you.”
As we have just celebrated the best event ever in the history of salvation, namely the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus shows the world how to love when he asked Peter three times the question, “Do you love me?” Three questions of love to cancel the three times of denial. Even in the moments when Jesus was deserted, lonely, imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, naked, sick on the cross, in a post-resurrection moment of tenderness and compassion, Jesus shows how to love those who have treated us wrongly. We are to feast in such love. Not saying that it is easy, because after all, in the love that Jesus shows, it is shown with wounds, and it is in such wounds that we see love at its finest. If Jesus can love with his wounds, then we can love with our wounds as well. Yet, it will take time; but once we take the time to adjust to the wounds, we too can, and will, feast in love.
