bloom where you are planted

St. John the apostle it is told was the only apostle who did not die a martyr’s death. So it is said that when he was already very old and could no longer walk, he was carried in front of the congregation who would gather in the church and people would ask him to say something, to give them a sermon on the words of Jesus. But every time they would ask he would say to them the same thing - - daw pari man liwat-liwat sermon – and his talks would never change always telling them – brothers and sisters you must always love one another.


The Christians during those times were already fed up with that and they would always shout John please change your sermon, we have already heard that a hundred time before – please tell us some other things. But John would always insist saying, “My children this is the will of God, that we should love one another. If you have fulfilled this commandment, all else will also be fulfilled.”
Why is it that John kept on insisting on this command? Why is it that the Lord himself keeps on repeating this command? And why is it that the church keeps on repeating and repeating the same injunction? Why – because he knows, they know that we will have difficulty in this particular area. We will always find it difficult to love.
Last night, as I was meditating on the gospel, I thought hard and wrote the things and the attitudes in people that I find difficult to love. I listed down the things that irritate me in people, the things that make me mad and angry with people.
And these are some of the things I wrote.
I find it difficult to love people who would always make me wait – people who are always late. I have always believed that promptness and being on time is a demand of charity and making people wait is uncharitable.
I find it difficult to love people who are inefficient. They are people who do not keep promises, people who would say one thing and do another, people who were instructed to do it this way and they would do it the other way, and people who could not understand instructions.
I hate people who don’t give a damn. Everybody is already up and about. Everybody is up to the neck doing whatever they can to save the day and you would find them doing nothing, relaxing, sitting, or even sleeping.
I find it difficult to love people who have no initiative. People who just want to follow, people who could not lead, people who need to be told what to do every time and be guided every step of the way like a little kid.
And lastly, I find it difficult to love people who would complain and complain and would not do anything about it. They would criticize and grumble but they would not lift a finger to address and solve the problem even if it is something that one can readily find a solution to.
These are some of the things I listed last night - some of the things I hate in people and things that make it difficult for me to love people. In the seminary where I am assigned the seminarians call me behind my back as the god of lightning and thunder – and I assure you that description may not be enough when things go wrong according to how I see things. And I believe this is the reason why St. John, why Jesus, and why the church, keep on insisting that we should love one another.
But don’t ever get the idea that I am saying these things in order to amuse you of my personality. A very old riddle asks, why does the little pig bow his head when he walks. And the answer is, the little pig bows his head when he walks because he is so ashamed his mother is a pig. And that’s my point. Human nature is the same. I have my own difficult and I know you have you own difficulty in loving.
And this is your assignment. I want you to think about the things that you hate in people. What are the things you have difficulty with in loving others. I think most of us will have three or four. Probably some will have a longer list than mine. If your list is longer, it does not mean that you are the worst person. All of us have these difficulties otherwise Jesus will not insist time and again in loving others if it is that easy and if it is always done.
Making the list is an important exercise, because it is only from that list can we start to answer the call of the gospel, the call of friendship, the call to bear one another in love. It is from this list that we can start to answer the question, whom should I love.
When I was assigned in the cathedral years past a young girl came to me crying saying, “my father is stupid, he is crazy if only I could choose a father I would not choose him ever!”
Well I thought to myself, what if I ask also her father. Probably her father would also say the same thing, “my daughter is crazy, she is stupid, if only I could choose a daughter I would not choose her, ever.”
If only I could choose. But only God can choose and we could not choose whom to belong to in a family. If it is possible it would have made our life easier, but it is not possible, at least in this world.
And so the final solution in loving is this: you fight with the soldiers you have, not with the soldiers you want. The demand of Jesus is that we love the persons we are with, and not just the persons we want to be with. Love the people you are with and not just the people you wish to be with. That is the problem with us. We love the people in the orphanage, we love the old people in the Asilo de Molo, we love people who are victims of calamities but we could not take good care of the old people in our house or care for the children of our servants.
Jesus wants us to love the persons he sends to us, not just the persons we want to love or persons we enjoy loving. And so, may we bloom wherever we are planted, and may we learn to love the persons God sends to us.