The call to slow down, the call to love

The week between Christmas and New Years is quite possibly my favorite week of the year. When I was in younger, my grandfather would take my sisters and I to the beach and we would ride bikes on the boardwalk, play scrabble, watch movies, and have ice cream for breakfast. We laughed and carried on and just spent time being with each other, loving each other. That is the beauty of this week - you are still surrounded by the spirit of love and joy of Christmas but without the to do lists or hustle and bustle of getting ready for Christmas.

In today’s reading, we hear that to know Jesus we must follow his commandment - we must walk as he walked, we must love. When I hear the call to love, it is easy to focus on my family and friends. In fact much of the hustle and bustle leading up to Christmas was to prepare ways to show my love and affection to my friends and family: writing cards, picking the right gift, surprising my children, preparing meals, spending time together. Each of these outward manifestations of love brings me joy and fills me with the Christmas spirit. But Jesus did not simply love his friends and family, nor does he simply call us to love our family and friends. We are called to love all of our neighbors.

As I reflect one more time on the busyness of the last few weeks, I realize that in my focus on the people in my life, perhaps there are times where I failed to love one my brothers or sisters in Christ - the gentlemen I inadvertently cut off with my grocery cart because I realized I forgot something for dinner and I was in a hurry - or the cashier who I barely acknowledged because I was looking at my to do list and thinking about the next errand I was going to run. To truly know Jesus, I must treat the fellow shopper or cashier or whomever else I encounter the way Jesus would treat them. And so I return to the beauty of this week, and challenge myself as I enjoy the Christmas spirit at a slower pace, to take a little extra time to ask the next person I meet how their Christmas was or if they got to spend time with their family - to get to know and love those I encounter.

Author: Michele Williams, Assistant Principal of Faculty and Academic Support