While we wait for the Christmas celebration with all the fun and festivities, Advent provides us with a time of reflection and renewal. It is a good time to examine what Jesus did wtih His human life.  

What can succinctly describe His life? Is this a life that we can imitate? Let’s examine this quote that I found in Pope Francis’ Little Book of Compassion (Compiled by Andrea Kirk Assaf, copyright 2017, Published by arrangement with Harper-Collins Publishers Ltd, pg. 315): 

The life of Jesus is a life for others. It is a life of service. 

It’s a simple quote, but one with a powerful meaning and a challenging example for us to imitate. It doesn’t take much thought to realize that this is exactly what Jesus did while on earth. He lived to show how to love one another through the delivery of care and love to the people he met during His ministry.  

He cared for His family, taking on Joseph’s trade as carpenter and making sure that Mary was cared for after His death; he had compassion for the new groom at the wedding feast and provided the best wine at the end of the celebration. He went about the region telling of the new commandment of love for God and each other. You know the other examples of curing, teaching, sharing, feeding and loving. 

It is not written that he ever complained that He was just too tired to help or save. Good thing for Peter when he stepped out of the boat. He never refused to take on the extra effort to make a difference in the lives of his followers and the people of Israel. He wasn’t even mean or nasty to the people who brought Him to His death. Although there are subtle lessons for these people that are delivered with compassion.  

His was a life of service. His life is our example for compassion to the fellow men and women we meet in this earthly life. I am not saying that this is easy. It’s not. Human nature gets in the way, and we surrender to our needs first. But that doesn’t mean that we abandon all attempts to help others in need.  

During this time of preparation for the birth of the Savior, the needs of many different people come before us at church, the grocery store, in the mail. Making the decision about who to help can be overwhelming. However, it is imperative that we make the effort to help folks in need in any way that we can be by assisting with packing food baskets, wrapping gifts, giving money or being kind to those we pass on the street-even though we don’t understand why they do what the do. Jesus would. 

He would because He loves everyone-everyone-unconditionally.  

Terri