Volume 5 No.1 January 2001
A HEALING RECIPE FOR
THE THIRD MILLENNIUM
What marks Christianity and sets
it apart from other religions of all time, is the commandment
of love. This powerful lodestone of the Christian faith is a
universal spirit of compassion that fills the hearts of all true
Christians and manifests itself in their caring for each other,
in lending a hand to those in need and in sharing the joys and
sorrows of all humankind as one indivisible body and soul.
It is said that when they needed
help of any kind, whether it was food, shelter or security, the
early Christians had only to proclaim these words, "Christ
has risen" and listen for this echoing response "He
is truly risen and is seated at the right hand of the Father".
It was through this testimonial declaration of faith that their
fellow Christians reach out to help them fill their needs.
Christianity, as the first Christians
understood it, was all about love. It began with God, who so
much loved the beings of this earth that He sent his only son
into the world, as the personification of His love, to save them.
For two thousand years now, the shining flame of Christ's love
has continued to glow, calling upon all people to follow its
light and share its blessings with one another.
In his First Epistle to the Thessalonians,
Chapter 5, Saint Paul talks about how we must love one another,
how we must comfort and edify one another. He tells us to know
those who labor among us and are with the Lord, to esteem them
more abundantly and in charity for their work's sake. He instructs
us to live in peace with all, to rebuke the unquiet, comfort
the feeble in spirit, protect the weak in body, and show understanding
towards those who try our patience.
Love is a powerful recipe that
never fails. It was tempered into everlasting strength by Christ
Himself, through His incarnation, teachings, death and resurrection.
It is said that the first Christians applied this recipe so well
and vividly that they were instantly recognized by all others
as followers of the Nazarene whose great love had bonded them
together.
To those who live in fear today
and despair of what the third millennium will bring, to those
who are pessimistic and say that love and compassion have died
in the world, we say that God's love truly endures. We say that
the world is made of you and me; we say that because for too
long we neglected love, we became part of the problem and that
it will be only through resurrecting love that we can become
part of the solution. As Mother Theresa advised, "We can
accomplish something extraordinary by doing something ordinary
with love."
At the dawn of this Third Millennium
of Our Lord, let us all in words and in deeds partake of this
potion of love to heal ourselves, our communities and our world.
Guita G. Hourani
Editor In Chief
