Church – the "now" when it is already possible to love

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself".

The main theme of the readings for the 30th Sunday is love. It is always good to come back to this theme and one can never speak about it too much. When I was thinking about what to say today, many thoughts came into my head and I even began to look for texts from the Old Testament and from the New to help me develop one idea or another. Suddenly, I remembered a song, a new song. I was very happy with the thought that it was a really new song, both from the point of view of history, chronology but also as a metaphor. In Christianity, and in Judaism too I assume, a new song is a song that tells of joy, a song that proclaims good news, a song that expresses hope. The song that I remembered is just such a song. It is also a new song because we have all just recently heard it: in fact just this week. Of course, I am speaking of the song that was written on the occasion of the return home of Gilad Shalit, a song sung by Arik Einstein: "Now that you are already here". This is a song that is very moving, a work of art that should not be critiqued. This past week I listened a number of times to this song and it is really beautiful.

Among the wonderful lines of this song, we can find the following especially moving words:

"But now that you are here
You can have love
You can have a strong embrace
You can breathe deep"

"But now that you are here, you can have love", this words are very moving. I thought a moment what is the meaning of the "now" which is spoken of in the song. Perhaps the "now" in the song is an expression of the joy caused by Gilad Shalit's return home. One could say that the "now" is an expression of confidence that the state cares about its soldiers and that soldiers return home. The "now" is also an expression of the hope that the day of the return of Gilad Shalit will also push forward peace in our area.

The question can be asked: what is the meaning of "now you can have love" in our daily lives, especially our lives as Christians. Unfortunately, we can imagine, if only we could not, but we can indeed imagine that tomorrow, or in two days time, God forbid, war will break out in our region, or in Africa, Asia or Europe… not important where. Then, will it not yet be time to love? I am not asking this question as criticism of the song that is sung by Arik Einstein, because as I said this beautiful work of art should not be criticized. However the question remains a question.

We, Christians, can say that for us the "now" in which one can love receives an eternal expression. After the death of Jesus on the cross and after his rising from the dead, we learn and we are called to love always, to love forever. To this "now we can love" there are no boundaries. In this perspective, the "now" in which we can love takes on a special form in what is called "the Church". The Church, in her temporal dimension and in her spatial dimension, is the reality in which we can love, in which we learn to love.

Church is not just a building in which we pray. It is also that but not only that. Church is not just a gathering of believers in Jesus. It is also that but not only that. Church is not just a meeting of believers praying together. It is also that but not only that. Church is the "now" in which one can love, it is the "now" in which we meet God and learn how to love from Him. We can compare the Church to the Tent of Meeting in which the children of Israel met with God in the wilderness. The Church is a Tent of Meeting for all peoples and it was established so that within it all can know the love of God for humanity. Church is not simply a place to which people go to participate in a ceremony, in which a priest reads from the Old Testament or the New, gives a homily, raises the bread and the cup. No, Church is first and foremost a place where we seek God and beseech Him: "Teach us how to love". In the "now" in which we live it is not always easy to love. Sometimes, it is not easy to love at home, at work, in the neighborhood. Sometimes it is not even easy to love in the community (kehilla). However, we come to the Church in order to learn how to love in our world, how to live in the "now" in which it is possible to love.

Finally, we must point out something important. It is said that "wherever two or three gather in the name of Jesus, he is there among them". However a famous song says "where there is love, there is God". So we can conclude that where there is someone who loves there is the Church. The Church is space and time in which to love, in which we want to learn to love. The Church is the "now" in which it is already possible to love.