Do I really care?

In the past few days, a few events that occurred made me reflect on the importance of genuine relationships... Mainly my own relationships.... Its about three days since a very memorable moment in my life. It was my convocation ceremony. And being the honoured personality of the day, gifts and well wishes flooded me with overwhelming joy and gratefulness.. It was great to feel special, honoured and affirmed...

However, somethings on that day in particular made me see the importance of relationships....

I would express myself by first placing love at the centre of all relationships. The capacity to love, in itself, is a gift of God. It is an intrinsic ability of the human being, that enables him to relate with one another, and in doing so, ultimately relating with God. The reverse can also be true. However, it is important to acknowledge, first and foremost,that love in itself is a gift of God. And thus, relationships become, not just an action of society,but, an intrinsic part of our creation.

Secondly, scripture tells us that "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him" (1 Jn 4:16). Now this statement, though simple, is indeed tough to digest (At least for me it was...). In a single verse, John tells us of God's true nature and the way He relates with us.

God, in his very Self, is the totality of Love. A love which desires (eros)... and totally gives of self(agape)... And being true to Who He Is, there can only be one way in which He can relate with us... and that is through LOVE..and nobody explains this better than Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est".

Thus, God created relationships, and relationships are centred on Love. And Because God is Love, every relationship becomes sanctified, for "..he who abides in Love abides in God, and God in him"

Now, here is what striked me on my convocation day. There were many who came over to me, greeting me and literally placing gifts on my hands. Admittedly, I did enjoy all the attention, but most of my smiles were fake, and most of my "Thank You's" were merely formal expressions of gratitude, that came from the mouth more than it did from the heart. I do realise that the idea of wanting to be at the receiving end was not wrong in itself. However, the question that perplexes me was " Did I value their presence and presents, from the heart?" , to which my answer was "No". I could justify this by saying that i didn't really know all of them (especially the relatives and members of the family who only appear during special events), but that simply displays the lack of genuinity that resides within me. I never really took any trouble to get to know them...even afterwards (A struggle that I'm still working on)...

This may not be a big deal... but it does (to me) reflect the seriousness of who we are... It also questions the very basics of my life in Christ. Is Christianity confined to the walls of the church building...or does it extend to the "ends of the earth" ?? Could we be one person to God, and another to everyone else? Where is the unity of what we believe in, and who we are?

I wonder if this makes any sense... its just plain scribbles after all...= )