When we say respect one another, we mean love one another; when there is trouble, love is all we need. If there is love, all will be well. Love cannot be with condition. It is not a bargain, it is not a truce, it is not a written agreement, and it is not a 50-50 deal. It is the total giving of oneself to the other.

We love until it hurts, and then it is true love. We love each other without a price, without a condition. No matter what it costs, no matter what we suffer, we will find a solution. Despite difficulties, suffering and struggles, we keep on life’s journey together forever.

Life without love is not possible, and life without sinning is impossible. As St Paul said, if you say that you have no sin you are a liar. All of us are plagued by concupiscence. There are the dominant passion, pride, lust, envy, jealousy, gluttony, etc; therefore, we hurt each other. But if we love each other we will forgive each other and admit our mistakes.

We must apologise for hurting each other because of natural, commonplace human errors and irresponsibilities. Even if we do wrong, we must not blame each other. Our humanity has it that we are constituted with faults, weaknesses, and sins; we are children of Adam and Eve. Rather than saying I am right and you are wrong, we must learn how to say I am sorry and laugh at ourselves.

In our Christian faith we take blame. We are quick to see our wrong in our relationships with others. We quickly see our misunderstanding or our misjudgements, even when we know that the other is partially wrong. Christ, who is totally sinless, takes the blame for others’ sins. Though innocent like a lamb, He takes on the punishment for our sins: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” Like Him, I must absorb the guilt and sins of others.

Christ the innocent one allowed Himself to be flogged, kicked, beaten, wounded, mocked, and spat at with the intention that He be punished but that the Father forgives us. Jesus becomes a slave in His love for us sinners. He opens His arms and is nailed to the cross in order to obtain the Father’s forgiveness of our sins.

Love is truth, truth is love; show me death now and I don’t care. Christ is almost reckless and self-sacrificing in His determined love and desire to forgive us our sins. When we see the figure of Christ under the heat of the blazing sun, when we see His tears and His sweat, when we feel His pain due to the thorns and the nails, we begin to experience the great love He had for us and His call that we love one another even painfully as He loved us.

Love for others is sacrifice, we are hurt by those we love most. But we must also remember that we hurt those whom we love most. But we must put all the hurt aside and keep on going in our love for one another. Love gives up all
— everything for the beloved. When we say we love one another, that love should remain throughout the duration of great difficulties, throughout our lives. We must be faithful to the end.

This love must be for our family members and friends and spread through our schools, our work places, our churches, and our country. You should be a loving person, carrying love within ourselves wherever we go.

Let us make love, not war. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes for all things, and embraces all things.

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