Family Talk - How to Love One Another

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HOW TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER

The Rt. Rev. George de Charms

Lessons: Matthew 25:31-40, Divine Love 13:2

The Lord wishes everybody to love Him - not only the angels of heaven, but also people on earth, including little children. And He gives people certain Commandments to keep, in order to show their love for Him. But the Lord does not command people to do more than they are able to do. And for this reason He asks great and noble things of angels, lesser things of people on this earth. And He asks very simple things of little children, things that are within their strength and ability to understand. By doing little things, children learn to love the Lord, and, when they love Him, He can slowly make them wiser and stronger, so that after a while they will be able to do greater things.

When the Lord was on earth He especially taught His disciples to love one another. "This is My Commandment," He said, "that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:12-13).

This is the secret of really serving the Lord. We cannot serve Him directly. We cannot see Him in this world; we can only think of Him and picture Him in our minds. And, as we think of the Lord - who created the whole world, who rules over all people, and to whom all things in heaven and on earth belong - we see that there is nothing we can do for Him. What can we give Him that He does not already have? We have nothing except what He gives us, so all that we have is already His. We cannot serve the Lord directly. But, still, He has made it possible for us to serve Him - by helping one another.

To help others is to perform uses. Everyone in the world is able to perform some use - to do something that the Lord will employ to help us and others come into heaven. And this really helps the Lord, because He loves to bring people into heaven more than anything else.

The Lord does not want anything for Himself. The one thing He wants is for people to become happy and live happily in heaven forever. So, when we do something to help others become happy - when we give them things they need and perform services that will give them joy - then the Lord is delighted. It is as if we had done something for Him! This is because when you love someone very much you feel happy when that person is happy. And the Lord loves everyone more than we can imagine.

And so He has created the world in such a way that we can all help one another. Every person is dependent upon many other people for the things he needs. If you want a house, you cannot build it yourself. You must hire people who know how to build houses to do it for you. If you need clothes, you must buy them from people who have spent time and labor in making them. You cannot raise all the food you need to eat for yourself, but others do it for you, and you can buy it from them. And so it is with all things. Other people are doing things for us all the time, things that we need, without which we would suffer hunger, cold, pain and distress.

All these things that people do for us are called uses, and because others do these uses for us, we should love them. Our love for them should be like the Lord's love. We should love them because they help to make others happy. We should not think only of what they do for us, but also of what they do for many other people. And because of their work, we should be thankful to them and should try to do something ourselves to help them and make them happy.

This is especially true of adults. All grown people have some work - their use - through which they serve others. Each one of you, when you grow up, will also have a use. And through this use the Lord will give you some of His own happiness - the happiness that comes from seeing others benefited.

But there are uses that you can perform now, as children. Think of all the things that your parents do for you every day, providing the things that are necessary to make you happy. Both your father and your mother work very hard, just to give you the things you need. Your teachers also work and study to give you the instruction you receive in school. For these and many other blessings you should be thankful to them and should try to serve them also.

How can you do this? You may feel that you are still small and cannot do very much. Well, you can do little things to help others, from time to time. But there is one way, above all others, by which you can really serve your parents and teachers - by learning the things they want you to learn. In doing this, you will be learning to love other people, even as the Lord loves you. Learning what your parents and teachers have to tell you will also make it possible for you to do some great use for others when you grow up. And it will prepare you to do some still greater use in the other world, when you have been called to heaven by the Lord. For unless you learn many things, you cannot perform a use. Nobody can do anything without first learning how. This is the reason why you go to school. This is your use, the work that the Lord gives you to do now.

If you have want to do a great use in the world, for the sake of other people, then you will be eager to learn and will study carefully and well. And with great use, comes the greatest happiness that anyone can know. So the Lord said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11).

Amen.

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