We are impelled by love, and not by duty or the bonds of the law, to act on behalf of others; mere lip service and pious promises of prayer are clearly insufficient. St Thomas Aquinas notes that we act according to our desires, and if we wish to see what one truly desires, we should look to what one does. Thus St James also says that "Faith was active along with... works, and faith was completed by works" (James 2:22). In this Lenten season, we are called to consider what we truly desire and re-align that desire so that we love our neighbour at least as much as we love ourselves.However, although Christian charity is rooted in this Levitical injunction, even this is not adequate. It is true that Cicero said that the love which we call friendship is like loving a "second self", thus when we love our friends we love ourselves. In a sense, then, love of our friends can be likened to love of our neighbour whom we love as ourselves. However, Christian charity calls us to go beyond even this love: we are called to love our enemies, and to love the least of our brothers and sisters, which is to say those whom society rejects and scorns: prisoners and sex offenders, AIDS victims, those who are mortally ill and suffering, the 'unwanted' baby, the 'tramp' who makes a mess in our church ...
The love which moves us to charity is not love of self, nor even friendship as Cicero understood it, but love of God. And it is God who shows us how to love well and gives us his grace to do likewise. Christ said to his disciples: "Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Christ put these words into action when he gave his life for all humanity on the Cross. We are called to do the same, to offer our lives so that others may live. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "To serve our brother, to please him, to allow him his due and to let him live, is the way of self-denial, the way of the Cross".
This Lent, let our Via Crucis be more than just a prayerful devotion, and let our self-denial go beyond chocolates and alcohol. Rather, may the Lord give us a heart of flesh so that our prayers and self-denial is enfleshed in prayerful action. How might we do this? Blessed Teresa said: "Try to give unconditionally whatever a person needs at the moment. The point is to do something, however small, and show you care through your actions by giving your time ... Do not worry about why problems exist in the world - just respond to people's needs". Let us love as Christ loves us.
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