Love (Part 2)

And the questions continue: With all the grace available to me to carry out this precious commandment of loving others, can I truly claim to have tried my best? Have I always sought that grace when I needed it?

One day while meditating, I thought about heaven. I figured loving others must be the only commandment in heaven. I remembered that old Eastern proverb that the long spoons at the banquet in heaven were for the purpose of feeding each other.

And then it struck me, if I am not able to practice loving as Christ loved on earth, how could I ever become a citizen of heaven where that was the only applicable rule? I  am not going to be able to decide who I want to hang out with in heaven. There is no separation by race, color, class, economic status or intellectual ability. I must love everyone because that is the ONLY way to live in heaven.

Wow!! Taking it further, I surmised that accepting the hope of eternal Salvation that Christ wrought on the Cross and baptism is the passport to heaven. But just as a passport does not guarantee automatic entry at the foreign destination, neither does baptism alone, which identifies us as having accepted the salvation offered by Christ’s death and resurrection.

If that is so, surely, the ability to love as Christ loved is the principal condition for the permanent  entry visa to be stamped upon one’s passport at the Pearly Gates. If one gets there without the ability to show a cumulative sincere and concerted effort to grow in this virtue, what happens?

Yes, God is merciful, but how can that help us if we are not able to live in the paradise beyond the gates because we are not open-minded about loving everyone we will meet there? We can’t pick our neighbors or friends in heaven!…. food for thought….and we have nobody to blame but ourselves if we arrive there sorely lacking that ability. It wouldn’t be because of a lack of opportunities to develop this virtue while we were on earth!!

Now my imagination begins to work overtime….

‘Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins.’ 1Peter4:8

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