Saturday, January 20, 2018

Love,Love, Love

Without love, we have hell, with love, paradise. A college teacher in a Catholic Peace Weekly column gives the readers a meditation on Love. A couple who have lived together for a life time make this trip to heaven and hell a few times a day. Love is not a word but a way of life. Husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, between brothers and sisters this journey is made often. 

Giving and accepting of love is more difficult the closer the bond is. A well-known family code of conduct shows the truth of this by clearly saying: "if love is found in the family you can love everybody."
 

Jesus asked of us two things: a reverential awe of God, and secondly to love one another. All the other virtues can be said to be contained in these two precepts.
 

The writer mentions a woman she has been concerned with for some time and lives alone. On a  visit to the woman she found her living in an unheated room with a blanket on the floor of the room. She spiritualized the whole issue and saw no problem.

She asked how much she has to live on each month.  With the money, she got on welfare and the other income it was not much, not enough to take care of her heating bill. She left some money to help in heating the house. On another visit, the woman was still on the floor with her blanket. She told the teacher it was still no problem with the cold and gave the money that she received to help some of the refugees from the North. She was like the widow in the Gospel with her offering in the temple.

On one occasion she asked about the writer's father who she knew was sick. She told her that being the daughter she should be close to her father during these difficult times.The writer knew what was behind these words. She told the woman that if anything happens in the future to contact her. "I will be with you."  She was relieved to hear these words from her friend.
 

Love is concern for another in little things, a little hillock that a person can use to rest. We can not save our country. We can make small contributions to the poor living in Africa but we can't have a direct impact on them. However, I can convey my interest and love to the people I meet daily.
 

She is an educator who teaches students. Nowadays, most of the students acquire their knowledge through the internet, and show little concern for the lectures they hear in the classroom. She reminds the readers that in the future it is said that artificial intelligence robots will do a much better job giving lectures and the teaching profession will disappear.
 

She finishes her article telling the readers she has changed her way of teaching from imparting information to the conveying of love. To do this we have to get rid of authority, practice patience and be closer to the students. Forming a loving community: is there anything more educative than that as an aim for an educator?