Give your life for another?

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends”. John, 15; 13

Most certainly our men and women in uniform deserve all the accolades as possible for their sacrifices to all of us individually and as a Nation. This is more about a secondary meaning of “giving your life” than any attempt to disregard the traditional understanding of this thread of Holy Scripture. It is easier to give your life once in death than to keep on living to care for and to give of yourself to others. In life, Jesus gave his life to all in preaching and teaching his Father’s ways. In death, Jesus gave his life for our salvation.

This is about “charity” not so much about giving up your life to death, but is instead giving your life, in life, with service to the poor. To physically die to protect someone’s life is indeed a great sacrifice; to give your life in charity is a lifelong endeavor. To give your life to protect a life is a onetime offering; to give your life in charity is to give life throughout your life.  I believe that this is in congruence with the teachings of Christ. Jesus taught us throughout the Gospels to love one another. Charity is consistently taught to us as a personal lesson.

In the verse preceding John, 15; 13, Jesus gives his greatest commandment: “love one another as I love you”. In the following verses Jesus calls his disciples “Friends” and explains why he does so. (John 15; 15), “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”  In keeping chapter fifteen (15; 1-16) in context, it is clear that Jesus is commanding that we take of each other. He is teaching his disciples that love is expressed through acts of charity, and that charity is how we love each other.

In these teaching of Jesus we can extract a sense that Jesus in not teaching a collective type of charity. Jesus’ teachings were directed at Jews and the leaders of the temple in Israel. Jesus was teaching a personal sense of love/charity. At no time did he direct the government, any government, to centralize charity. Love expressed is the work of disciples and apostles of God, both individually and through the Church. Charity is the work of salvation, not salvation deserved, but instead salvation preserved.

May blessings of Love and Charity be in your heart.

All scripture is from the NABRE

by David E. Gonzales