A Transcending Love—

Copernicus overturned the conventional idea that the Earth is the center of the universe and argued that the Earth and the planets revolve around the Sun. A Catholic University priest's 'Preciousness of Faith' Column in the Catholic Peace Weekly reminds us of this transformation, which changed many people's vision.

Although this change in thinking was difficult to accept then, no one now thinks the Earth is the center.

The reason why Christian faith is difficult is because it requires a kind of 'Copernican revolution.' Pope Benedict XVI said, "If I were to summarize the entire Christian faith in one word, it would be love that has achieved a Copernican revolution." In other words, if until now the center of the world was 'me,' and everything revolved around me, for Christians, the center now becomes  God, and everything revolves around Him. He has bestowed overflowing love and grace through Jesus Christ upon us.

However, real life does not seem easy. It may seem impossible because we realize we are selfish and weak humans. The writer remembers a language school teacher who said he hated putting himself in someone else’s shoes while studying abroad in France. He meant that although he spoke from someone else’s perspective, he could only think, experience, and speak from his own perspective and could never understand someone else’s perspective.

One of the humans' greatest limitations is that we cannot completely make someone else’s situation our own. The writer's mother once said this when she was alive: “Oh, it’s so hard. What can I do? I can’t be sick for you.”

But if you think about it, we also know how to be sick for someone else. When a child gets sick, parents can’t sleep and stay up all night with their eyes wide open next to the child. What happens to a friend, acquaintance, loved one, or someone we love feels like our business. Can we really call ourselves human if we just pass by someone dying? Passing by someone who is mugged or assaulted on the street may be the best way to avoid harm, but people who listen to their conscience act immediately without concern for their safety. This is because they consider it their own business, not someone else’s.

When the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred in the United States, a French seminarian friend of the writer said that he could not eat for several days. He said it was because of the shock of the terrorist attacks. Isn’t it true that someone who realizes the misery of those on another continent is related to me and sharing their pain is truly human?

 We believe that Jesus transcended the limitations of others. He experienced the pain, sorrow, and suffering that people experience. He made everything that humans experience, even death, his own. He sweated blood and suffered in agony before death and confessed that his heart was so troubled that he was ready to die. He suffered all kinds of insults and ridicule during his suffering and death on the cross; he became someone abandoned by everyone.

But that was actually a sign of God’s love for us. It is a love that goes beyond the boundaries and gives everything without leaving anything behind, a love that ‘gives’ even the last breath.  (See John 19:30.)

The Copernican shift of love is difficult, but it is definitely worthwhile. It fills this barren world with humanity, as Jesus did, and allows people to have hope for one another.