What Defines Christians is Love

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C

St. Gerard Majella Church 

Sunday, April 28, 2013 

Christians have always had a problem of how to tell the world who they are. At some periods in history and still in some places in the world, uniforms have played a very important role in announcing our identity to the world. Think of the various uniforms of the various Christian societies of consecrated life, which distinguish consecrated people not only from other Christians but also from one another according to their institutes. The Redemptorist habit is different from that of the Dominicans and Franciscans etc. The quest for uniforms, habits, badges, banners and pinups designed to distinguish believers from non-believers does indeed have its place in the celebration of who we are. We are symbolic beings who need to express our faith in symbolic ways. Jesus himself wrestled with the question of how to distinguish his followers from the non-believers around them. But his prescription goes much farther than external habits and uniforms.

For Jesus the essential mark of distinction between Christians and non-Christians is not in the way we dress but in the way we live: I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-5).

Love is the Christian identity. Love is the Christian uniform. Love is the Christian habit. If you are wearing the habit of love, you are in. If you are not wearing love as a habit, you are out. Love is the essence of life. It is what keeps us together and keeps us going as children of God. Love is the summary of Christianity; it is the summary of life; it is the summary of our faith. Love is the reason for faith and hope. 

Love is the identity and the uniform of Christians. Jesus wants the world to recognize us as his followers not because we carry the Bible about, or because we wear the Rosary and other religious objects. Jesus does not want the world to recognize us as Christians simply by the stickers we have in our houses and in our cars. He wants the world to recognize us by the way we love each other. He wants the world to recognize us by the language of love we speak. Love should be the lens through which we see each other. Love should be the language we speak as sons and daughters of Jesus. And when the world sees how much we love each other with the love of Christ, they will know we are his disciples. Although Jesus wants us to “go to the whole world and preach the good news,” but the most effective evangelization and witnessing has less to do with how fluent we speak and how powerful we preach; it is more to do with how much we love each other.

Love has been defined, explained and discussed in various ways. but for me love is “I accept you the way you are; you accept me the way I am. And together we can enrich each other, shape each other and recreate each other better in the image and likeness of God.” By accepting each other the way we are, we teach the world the virtue of tolerance and compassion. By enriching, shaping and recreating each other, we teach the world the virtue of charity, character formation and human development. A gospel preached is useless without a gospel lived. And the gospel is better lived in love. No member of a church stops coming to church because the people love each other genuinely. No one hates a church because the members practice the love of Christ. The world will probably not hate us because we love each other. No one leaves the church because the priest is kind and compassionate. No one becomes an atheist because we, Jesus’ followers love him or her. Atheism is rather created because we do not act as Jesus directs us. Atheism is created because Christians do not practice what they preach; they do not practice the virtue of love. Genuine love is infectious.

Scripture says that God created us in his image. And this image is an image of love because God is love. At the very core of the human person is love. Our feelings and emotions incline us to act and not to act in relation to what is good or evil. The most fundamental of all these feelings and emotions is love. Love brings new things in our life and society. Love makes God live among us. Remember the song: “Where love and charity abide, there God is found.” Love enthrones the reign of God in our family and society. It wipes away tears from people’s eyes- tears of frustration, hunger and sickness, and hopelessness. Love makes the whole of creation new. Love removes mourning or sadness. Even in suffering, love from sisters and brothers lightens the burdens. It really feels good to love and be loved.