[THE ANGLICAN CATECHIST  A Column for Catechists or Teachers who share their Christian faith with children, youth and adults in congregations of the Episcopal Church.]

Love One Another....

By: The Rev. Joseph C. Neiman

Hearts and flowers will soon be everywhere as the advertising industry thrusts Valentine's Day upon us. Even in our parish religious education programs, it is difficult to resist making and using such symbols as part of catechesis. Perhaps we need not resist as Valentine's Day comes in the beginning of Lent when we focus on that central mystery of our faith: the cross. Or more aptly put at this moment, the central event wherein Jesus laid down His life for us.

St. John recalls how Jesus taught: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15.13). It is heartening to quote how Jesus taught us to "love one another," but this was only part of what He said at the Last Supper. "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (Jn 13.34). Here's the heart of the Valentine lesson. Contrary to popular thinking which says that Jesus taught the Golden Rule, loving others as we love ourselves is actually from the Old Testament. In the Law of Moses we read: "Love your neighbor as your self" (Lev 19.18). Jesus gives us a "new" standard for loving: Himself. As He laid down His life for us, so we are to lay down our lives for one another in loving one another. "I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you, and your joy be complete" (Jn 15. 12).

The change of standards is truly good news, for most of us are so wounded by the broken or partial experiences of love we have known in our lives that we have a difficult time loving ourselves let alone our neighbors. It comes as a revelation to most of us when we actually hear and understand for the first time that Christ has and does and always will love us totally - enough to lay down His life for us, both individually and collectively!

We might be able to teach older students the meaning of these words and actually compare the teaching of Moses (Lev 19.18) with the teaching of Jesus (Jn 13.34 & 15.9-17), but for most of the little ones we teach by experience. That means their experience of actually being loved unconditionally by us teaches them the reality of what Jesus commands. That's true for teens too. You see in any teaching-learning situation the most important of the elements are the persons present: the teacher, the learners, and the Lord! It is our post-Reformation emphasis upon "right doctrine" and our North American reliance on the printed word that make us value "content" more than the persons and the process, which is at heart a love process of sharing an idea, a vision a dream, a presence between persons.

Articles of the Creed, which are valuable to learn, are secondary, however, to the essential "content" of catechesis: the risen Lord who is present with teacher and learners, "for where two or three gather together in My name, I shall be there with them" (Mt 18.20). And His presence is experienced by the way in which the teacher loves and shares with the learners in His name. It is more important that the learners, little or big, walk away from our religious education programs feeling loved than it is for them to take home a high score for having memorized answers to catechism questions however expressed. Madison Avenue will announce in no uncertain terms that we ought to love one another and express that love, but the question remains: How? How do we know what love is? Who can teach us how to love? And what are the ways in which true love can be expressed? You know the answers, Beloved of the Lord. Share the good news with them!