The Savior (05/29/2024)

Yesterday I wrote about the pain of friends I so wanted to comfort. And a reader wrote to me about it and shared his mother’s wisdom. He wrote: “My mother used to say to me, “You can’t save the world, that’s Jesus Christ’s job. But you can definitely help a friend or stranger or neighbor in need. But our heart must be open to see the pain.”

His words resonate so deeply within me. I do so want to help, to fix the wrong, to soothe the pain, to comfort the heartache. But I must recognize that I am not the “Savior.” Jesus Christ is. My job, my vocation, is not to be the Savior but to be the one who brings the Savior to others and others to the Savior, the one who loves those around me because I am loved.

Today’s first reading from 1 Peter 1:18-25 speaks clearly and strongly about that. It reminds us that our Savior is Jesus Christ who shed His precious blood so that we might have life. The reading calls us to faithfulness to this truth, to obedience to this truth, through love, to “love one another intensely from a pure heart.” Peter is reminding us of Jesus’ final command to his disciples the night before his arrest, passion, and death, namely, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34).

On this journey, it is imperative that we remember who we are and who we are not. I am not the Savior. But I know the Savior. And in that knowing and in that loving of the Savior, I am called to be an instrument of that love in the world, wherever I go, whatever I am doing. Always and everywhere, the transformative love of Christ is at work if I open myself to Him. I am not the source; I am merely the conduit, the channel, the instrument He will use.

My friend’s mother was so wise. He was blessed to have her and her loving wisdom. I am blessed to have him as a friend. And that is how this life is meant to be. Our relationships in life inform us, conform us, transform us. And key among them, the most sacred of all is our relationship with our LORD.

Every day across the world the children of the LORD are suffering. Will we be the ones who stop to help? Will we be the ones to open our hearts so that we can see their pain?

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.