I once had a poignant experience with a dying young man (an alumnus of ours) who was literally a lost soul. He spent the last years of his life trying to “experience all that the world has to offer” (as he put it). As he saw his inevitable end coming, he struggled to make sense of his life.
“Unsay pulos sa kinabuhi, dre ?” he asked me. It’s a statement I find difficult to translate in English because of the overload of implications and emotions it carries. Literally, it means “What’s the use of life?” It’s a question that asks for the purpose of life but also expresses sentiments of regret, frustration and blaming. Paraphrased, it sounds something like, “I did not ask for life, and I was given one which I messed up. So, why was I made to live in the first place?”
His question left me dumbfounded and I was at a loss for an intelligible response. Hastily, I searched for a convincing formula from the bible, the catechism, my homilies and retreat talks. In the end, all I could say was, “God created you because he loves you and wants you to experience love.”
He gave me a quizzical look which made me feel uncomfortable. “Tim,” I said, “I know my answer sounds corny, but it is the only answer I know and believe… Look at you. I’ve been visiting you for some days now. I’ve seen many people come and go in this room… your relatives, friends, and classmates. Your parents left their work to be with you 24/7 for more than a month now. But I never once heard you say “thank you” to any of them. This room is full of love, and you don’t even feel it, you don’t see it.” Tim was an only child of a rich couple and grew up spoiled and entitled.
Tears began to flow from his eyes… In the days that followed I would catch him saying now and then, “Mom, Dad, please hug me.” Not long after, Tim died.
In today’s gospel the scribe asks Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus responds by quoting the verse from Deuteronomy (6:4-5) about loving God with all of one’s heart, soul, mind and strength and another verse from Leviticus (19:18) about loving one’s neighbor as oneself. Then he adds that there is no other commandment greater than these.
Jesus tells us that love of God and love of neighbor are one and inseparable, like two sides of the same coin. That is why John says in his letter, “He who says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar,” (1 Jn 4:20) We express and prove our love of God in our love of neighbor.
St. Paul even goes all the way to declare that “the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Ga 5:14)
We can rightly say then that if the whole law is summed up in love, then the only thing we really need to do in life is to love. In fact, at end of our life we shall be asked only one question: did you love? If we did, we will be blessed to hear the King’s invitation saying, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink… whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’’ (Mt 25:34-35,37)
No wonder St. Augustine does not hesitate to say, “Love God first, and then do what you will.”
They say that towards the end of his life, the apostle John was often invited by the Christian communities to speak about the Lord. Wherever he went he would tell the believers the same message, “Little children, love one another.” Wearied by the same message repeated every time, they asked John, “Master, why do you always say this?” The old patriarch replied, “Because it is the Lord’s command, and if this only is done, it is enough.”
In his recently published encyclical letter, Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us), Pope Francis writes, “Every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and be loved… In loving we sense that we come to know the purpose and goal of our existence in this world.” DN 21,23)