ღTrue love. It is not enough to talk about love, it is necessary to live the commandment of love.

Anthony de Mello in the book “Bird’s Song”  presents short stories and writes: “A certain man found an eagle’s egg. He took it and put it under the hen in the chicken coop. A little eagle hatched with a flock of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the eagle behaved like a chicken in the yard, thinking he was a domestic rooster. He was raking the ground looking for worms and worms. He chattered and chattered. He could even flap his wings and hover several meters in the air. After all, isn’t that how roosters fly? Years passed, and the eagle grew old. Once he noticed a beautiful bird high above him – in the clear sky. He flew elegantly and majestically in the middle of the air currents, barely moving his powerful golden wings. The old eagle looked up in amazement. “What is it?” he asked the hen standing next to him. “It’s an eagle, the king of birds,” replied the hen. “But don’t think about it.

Do we know what we are here for? Let’s remember it with the words of the Lord Jesus from the Gospel: “As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love” (Jn 15:9).

These words are particularly relevant also because we remember the Ascension of the Lord Jesus. The words sound like a testament. Jesus knows that his mission ends on earth. Human eyes will not see him again until the time when he comes into the world as the Judge of the world. However, he wants to be with each of us, connected in silence and purity of heart through the most beautiful human feeling – through love. It indicates the conditions under which this contact from our side must be maintained. “If you keep…” (Jn 15:10). Here Jesus is talking about the greatest love, which is manifested in our loyalty to God and love for our neighbour as for ourselves, just as he kept his Father’s commandments. If we want to be his true friends, only when we do what he has commanded us. Then his love will be complete in us. It is a challenge.

Is it love when a singer sings love words and transgresses God’s commandments? Is it love when we confess our love to another person with words and deeds, and is it a sin? It is love when we recite a prayer when we are at Holy Mass, and we approach the sacraments, and we harbor in our hearts’ resistance to certain truths of faith, and commands, when we do not want to leave the path of sin, the opportunity to sin, in relation to things, persons, feelings. ..?

Yes, the difficulty is also in the fact that we are not persistent in love. That is why we identify with Jesus’ words: “If you keep…” (Jn 15:10). “Caritas oblige – love obliges”! Those who live love, and fight for love, often have to suffer more, even though they are less popular. They don’t give up He is cautious in his emotions, he prefers the truth and remembers human weaknesses, he rises above insults, he knows how to forgive, and he forgets the evil done to him.