The Power of Love

'If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.'  (1Corinthians 13:1)

The maid we have at home was, for some reason, behaving very indifferently towards me the past few months. It seemed as though she was angry and upset with just me and no one else. Wouldn't answer my questions or acknowledge anything I said; showed her displeasure when I entered the kitchen or did anything there; so on and so forth. Since I always spoke kindly and gently to her, I couldn't find any justifications for the way she behaved with me. I did try asking her about this, but she would just keep quiet and not say a word. More than once I have tried to strike a normal conversation, but she would ignore every word and pretend not to hear me at all. I found this very irritating and stressful. I tried to think hard if there was anything more that I needed to do, and concluded that there was not - because I was always polite, gentle and tolerant in my interactions with her and have never treated her harshly. Things were all the more difficult because our medium of communication had to be Hindi, which didn't come too naturally to me. And the whole situation of working with someone who sulked at me 24/7 was really causing me a lot of stress. 

So just the other day, I flopped down on my bed-side chair and pleaded, 'Lord, I know I am taking all this stress unnecessarily; but I just don't know how to come out of this; please help me!' 

The moment I finished saying this, I clearly heard the voice of Jesus telling me, 

 "Love. Expect nothing in return."

A few other related verses from the Bible streamed in to my mind:

'Freely you have received, freely give.' (Matthew 10:8)

 'If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you?'  (Luke 6:32)

 'Overcome evil with good.' (Romans 12:21)

I kept re-playing the clear, crisp commanding voice of Jesus - "Love. Expect nothing in return."  And the depth of its meaning slowly dawned on me.......

I had made the mistake of thinking that being kind, gentle and polite was good enough. True - I was indeed kind, gentle and polite towards to her; but I expected her to be kind and respectful in return. That was not love - not by Jesus' standards. As people who know Jesus, we are called to do much more. We are called to love, expecting nothing in return. We are called to be kind and gentle and forgiving, no matter what. I promised Jesus I would run to the confessional at the earliest opportunity. All of a sudden I felt very light at heart and all of the stress lifted off.

I now desired to set things right by loving her as Jesus wanted me to. I stepped into the kitchen repeating to myself, 'I will love, expecting nothing in return.' I knew Jesus would provide His grace.  

When I started speaking to her, she responded cheerfully - an actual conversation happening after many days. When I got ready to cook something, she chopped the onions for me and even asked me if I needed tomatoes as well - something that hasn't been happening for a long long time. Honestly, I couldn't believe my ears. The magic of true love was already at work. 

The more I reflect on this little experience, the more I am filled with awe. It's been more than a fortnight now, and the magic still continues. To move what I thought was a huge mountain, all it took was a decision to love! It was so powerful that it transformed my heart as well as hers in the blink of an eye. 

May we never strive to be just 'good enough' people - for that's not what we are called to be. Instead, may every one of us be able to go about our daily chores and responsibilities, with His words ringing in our ears - "Love. Expect nothing in return" - remembering that if we have the desire, He will provide the grace. It is then that we will experience the fullness of joy and peace that Jesus has promised for those who love Him. 

Praise God!

The Table

We have this little table in our home. It's a small square table with wooden legs and a glass top, originally made to be a coffee table for our living room area. This area being not too large, the table was made in such a way that it could be put away in the space under a big table in the area, to be pulled out only when we needed to use it. Well, it's been about six years now – and I can't remember a time when we actually took this table out and used it. It just gets pulled out, dusted, and pushed back. Only the other day, I was thinking that this table has been useless and a mere waste of money.

And then came Fr.Babu, to celebrate Holy Mass at home. We planned to set up the dining table for the Mass and kept a big white tablecloth ready to drape over it. But the father, taking a quick look around the room, straightaway pointed to this little table hiding under the big one, and said, 'Why don't we use this one?'

Thus, the table got pulled out, dusted and cleaned, and draped with the big white tablecloth (which, by the way, had to be folded twice). Two candles at either end; three vases of fragrant flowers lined up in front; all things for the Eucharistic celebration laid out neatly on top. It looked absolutely beautiful.The inconspicuous coffee table which I had branded 'useless', was now all adorned and ready to be the Eucharistic Table ; ready to hold up the precious Body and Blood of Christ; chosen to be the altar of the Great Sacrifice...

These thoughts have been playing in my mind ever since we had the Mass at home last Saturday. At first when they streamed in, my reaction was - 'why such a big deal about such a small matter?' But then I realized that they came with a message. About how God spots us sitting in our own hiding places, and yearns to use us for glorious purposes. Are we available? If yes, He will adorn us with all that we need. Just as He did to the little coffee table.  Praise God!

The Voice

During the counselling session by Philochechy in January she talked about the voice of God talking to us in daily life. She talked about how she has heard God telling her in seemingly ordinary situations like taking a bus or going somewhere, which seems to go against logic and reasoning.

I have heard this "voice" many times, especially while driving. As you may (may not) know, I like driving and is fairly aggressive on the road. There are many instances where I have clearly heard a voice telling me SLOW DOWN. And these are instances when the roads are pretty desolate and your heart tells you to floor the pedal. Or it could be a time when someone was overtaking and then the voice says LET HIM GO. It is a very definite, distinct and direct voice that I hear. It felt very strange in the beginning and once or twice I even turned around to see if someone in the car was saying this. Somehow I have always listened the voice.

An unseen hurdle, a possible accident, chance of a tyre puncture...only God knows what He was saving me from.

I thought it was the voice of the Holy Spirit but now I know it is.