Along the path of life we come across both selfish and unselfish people. To which group do you and I belong? Perhaps we are a mixture of both generosity and selfishness. But to the extent that we may still be partly selfish, self-centred, and self-indulgent, we are not living the message of Jesus: ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (John 15:12-13), writes Father Brian Gleeson in the Catholic Religious Australia newsletter.

Jesus lived his entire life for God and others. Speaking God's love to people, showing them God's love, and living God's love for them, that’s what Jesus of Nazareth was all about. He practised no racism, no apartheid, and no discrimination.

To rich and poor, powerful and powerless alike, he reached out with unstinting love. Nobody was excluded from the love burning in his great heart. He died just as he had lived - with love and generosity, kindness, compassion and forgiveness in his heart.

Ever since, hundreds and thousands of his followers have lived his example and commandment. I’m thinking of so many good mothers and fathers, who have given everything they could to the care of their children, friends, neighbours and strangers. I’m thinking of so many religious, men and women, who have laid down their lives in the service of others, and even more particularly of religious Sisters.

Over the last few weeks in the press and other media both here and overseas, there has been an outpouring of love, appreciation and gratitude for the lives and work of religious Sisters. For the ways they have befriended people on the margins. For the ways they have educated, often completely free of charge, a countless number of children of poor families. For their pastoral care and kindness to patients in hospitals.

FULL STORY Living for others (CRA)