Love

By Al S. Mendoza

ON Tuesday, we celebrate Christmas, the most important day in all of Christendom because it commemorates the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have five wishes to mark this most important birthday in the Christian calendar. 

One, I wish to love my parents (even though they are gone) without any condition and qualification up to my last breath.

Two, I wish to love my wife, my children and their children with all my heart and soul. Three, I wish to love my brothers and sisters in the immediate family with the same fervor I accord my parents, wife and children.

Four, I wish to love any stranger that comes my way, no matter the consequences.

Five, I wish to love those who hate me, especially those who hate me most, and also to those who consider me their enemy.

On the surface, it seems so easy to fulfill all five wishes. 

But at times, we only love to talk, not to act.  Thus, how can we show our love to our closest of kin?

It’s easy to say, “I love my parents.”  But are we really showing it?  I mean, are our  words of   affection consistently translated into action?

When was the last time you surprised your parents by bringing them their favorite food one bright, sunny Sunday morning, or one dark, rainy night?

My fifth wish appears to be the toughest challenge.  Oftentimes, pride gets in the way.  It’s not easy loving your detractor, not easy showering affection to a perceived enemy. 

But there lies the true test.

For, where is love if you will only love those who love you naturally, such as your parents, wife and children and brothers and sisters in the immediate family?

I adhere to the Good Book: Love can only be complete if you also love strangers and, most especially, those who do you wrong.

Love thy neighbor says the Good Book and so, love we must  the total strangers:  Kids knocking on your door or car window for alms, the slew of blind people begging for coins in the company of our Aeta  brothers and sisters descending from Zambales.

Usually, the toughest test is, when you forgive the one who hurt you a while back.

True love is when you can love again the one you hated the most: Enemy.

The best time for forgiving, for healing, is Christmas.  It is actually the best gift   we can offer Jesus Christ, whose love for us he proved by doing the ultimate – offering his very own life for humankind.

It is in this context that Christmas should be observed, celebrated.

We celebrate Christmas by celebrating the beauty of life – a life of forgiving, of healing, of loving.

Loving everybody, especially our enemies – perceived or otherwise – is actually the message of every Christmas.  And the loving   shouldn’t be only this season but also, all year round.

Merry Christmas!

(Readers may reach columnist at also147@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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