This short sentence (at left) gives us some of the most recognizable of the words of Jesus. Its brevity, however, should not be allowed to mask the wideness of its implications for us as believers and followers of Jesus.

The depth of the love we are called to embrace and live is linked to the love we have received from Jesus Himself (“as I have loved you”). We must not allow our general worldly cares and obligations to distract us from remembering daily how much Christ has loved us.

Adam and Eve, our first parents, lived in the world before sin. They and creation were, at first, in harmony with God and His love.

But then the first sin, offered to God by them, lost the grace of original holiness and responded with scorn to God’s love. All of us have ever since shared in death and the consequences of sin.

But the disaster of original sin has made even clearer for us the love of God. Even though we were sinners, and part of the human race who broke faith with God, He did not cease to love us.

The result, as we know, was that God did not turn away from us. Neither did He simply tolerate the human race in some fashion. Rather, in Jesus He came to live among us.

Even more, on the cross Jesus died in our place after suffering tremendously in our flesh that He had taken on.

This, as faith tells us, is the summary of how Jesus has loved us. It establishes then the model and we might even say the baseline of the love we are to have for others.

We recognize that the practice of charity, of loving others, begins first in the family. It is one of the fundamental lessons of family life that there are others in this world and our attention to self must give way to attention to and love for others.

For the married couple, the gift of children brings a new aspect of charity into the relationship of marriage. For the children, the presence of siblings widens the concept of sharing and of offering support.

In our modern society, much of our public policy, even if separated from any explicitly religious connotation in order to enforce a separation of Church and state, still bears the echo of a past rooted in Christian faith.

We argue greatly about the need and the best way to care for the poor in our midst. How can we best assist the refugee and the stranger? These are all essential parts of loving our neighbor.

A further insight into the love of our neighbor was offered by Pope St. John Paul II. In his Apostolic Letter entitled Salvifici Doloris, written in 1984 following his suffering from the assassination attempt against him, the Holy Father noted how suffering brings forth a call to the deepest of love for each other.

That suffering could be on the part of the one who is giving the love, as was the case with Jesus on the cross. Or it could be the suffering of the world that cries out for our solidarity.

As Pope John Paul noted, “… in a certain sense man owes to suffering that unselfish love which stirs in his heart and actions. The person who is a ‘neighbor’ cannot indifferently pass by the suffering of another: this in the name of fundamental human solidarity, still more in the name of love of neighbor” (SD, 29).

In a time when our society is marked by violence, abortion, incivility, and frequent indifference to the suffering of others, especially those in other parts of the world, faith calls us again to focus on love and charity for others.

We need not look far. Those who are in need and those who are suffering are close at hand. Before them we cannot remain indifferent. We are called to love them as Jesus loves us.