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PROFILE OF THE 

GENESIS CATHOLIC COMMUNITY

COVER STORY

  By Bro. Pete Lapid

Brothers & Sisters in Christ,  

The word Love can have different meaning or significance to different people. But for me, and being single for the Lord, I always associate it with God’s unconditional love for us. The unconditional love of the Father for us.

 

Yes, God loves each one of us equally. He sets no conditions for His love. It is not like, He will love us if we do good to others, or if we go to Church every Sunday, or if we obey our elders or parents. Or vice-versa, He will not love us if we do not do these things. No. God loves both the sinner and the saint, the loved and the unloved, the poor and the rich, the just and the unjust, the good as well as the bad, from every race and tongue – unconditionally.

 

But it does not end there. Jesus tells us, challenges us, “Love one another as I have loved you”. If God loves us unconditionally, so we too ought to love each other unconditionally. I know it is a challenge, in fact a big one. For how can you love someone who is unlovable? Someone who irritates you or nags you? Someone who says bad things against you? Someone who is boastful and proud? Or someone whom we consider “weird” by our standards? How can you love a maid or a driver who is very slow in understanding your instructions? Or who is lazy or even difficult to deal with?  

You know why we find it difficult to do love these people? It is because we set standards for our love. We set conditions in order for us to love others. Conditions which are acceptable to us and which we impose upon others. It is like; I will love you if you are good to me, or if you obey my orders. I will love you if you do this or do that.

 

So in the end, we end up judging people or labeling them. That is why the Lord Jesus also tells us in Matthew 7:1-2  “Do not judge and you will not be judged. In the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and the measure you use for others will be used for you”.

 

Think for a moment, if God were to set conditions or standards for His love for you, will you pass the test? If you were judged by the measure with which you measured others, what would the judgment be?

 

Many times in the Gospels, Jesus condemned the sin but not the sinner. He forgave the sinner and helped him so that his life may be restored back to God. And He is asking all of us to do the same. To love one another as He loves us... unconditionally.