When Jesus was asked what one must do to enter the kingdom of heaven is answer was to love: Love God, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Core to the Christian vocation is the call to love. There are many examples in the gospel about how we are to love. Accordingly, descriptions of love are qualities we all strive for: love of enemies, giving to the poor, mourning with those who mourn, etc. But perhaps the deepest desire of Jesus was that we may all be one, being one with God and each other.
In The Emergent Christ, Ilia Delio writes about the role of Christ and our role in evolution.
“Love is the metaphor for Christ and that divine love incarnating evolution is the work of the Spirit. To be engaged in the mystery of Christ is to be caught up in the Spirit of new life, creativity, imagination, and openness to the future.”
As a Buddhist, love is really all we have time for. Love is the only New Year’s Resolution required. On Kristen Tippet’s “On Being,” Mr. Jon Kabat-Zinn phrased the concept accordingly:
“It doesn’t actually take any more time to say good-bye or hug you know, your children or whatever it is in the morning when you’re on your way to work. But the mind says, “I don’t have any time for this.” But actually that’s all you have time for, is this because there’s nothing else than this. So when your four-year-old can’t decide which dress she wants to wear, that’s not a problem for you, unless you make it a problem for you. That’s just the way four-year-olds are. And the more we can sort of learn these lessons the more we will not be in some sense running towards our death, but in a sense opening to our lives.”
Thus in 2013, may love be all the only resolution we require.