Love in Action

I learned a new word today: “haecceity,” which means “The quality that makes something or someone what they are.” We all know people who are compassionate; the haecceity, or quality, that makes them compassionate is kindness. Unfortunately, today are seeing more and more examples of people who are violent; the quality that makes them violent is anger. This makes me wonder: What is the quality that makes someone a Christian? I believe it is trust in a God who loves all people and calls us to do the same.

According to Fr. John Kavanaugh, Mother Teresa believed that the greatest need in life is greater trust. Her belief is being affirmed today as many people are exhibiting high levels of mistrust in government, science, and our religious, educational, and judicial institutions. The peace educator Paul Chappell believes that this mistrust in coming from “tangles of trauma” that many people have experienced at the hands of family members, employers, religious figures, teachers, politicians, and judges.

Mother Teresa also believed that the absence of love is the greatest poverty. Therefore, it is critical that we who are grounded in the love that comes from knowing God extend that love to others. It is not enough to say “God loves you”; we need to demonstrate the effects of that love in our own lives by being generous, peaceful, caring, prayerful, and patient and by serving others. As another saint — Teresa of Avila — said, “Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.”

It may seem impossible to untangle all the traumas afflicting our world today. However, that’s not our job. Our job is to be open to the ways God seeks to work through us to heal others. As Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13:35).