From the Pastor’s Desk: Father Rodolfo Coaquira Hilaje
(Father Rudy) May 18, 2025
My Brothers and Sisters in the Risen Lord,
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.—1 Corinthians 13:1–3
What is love? We use the word so easily, so often, and in so many ways—love for a friend, a spouse, a child; love for a cause, a memory, a meal. But when Jesus speaks of love in John 13:31–35, just after Judas has left to betray Him, He isn’t talking about affection or feeling. He is pointing to something far more difficult—and far more powerful.
Why did Jesus go to the cross? Because He loves us. But not with a sentimental or emotional love. His is perfect love, a love that gives everything—holding nothing back. He says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified,” and He means that His suffering, His dying, even His betrayal—are all caught up in His glory. How can that be? Because in His suffering, Jesus reveals the fullness of who God is: love poured out, utterly selfless, poured out to the last drop. He glorifies the Father by completing His mission of love, and the Father glorifies Him in return.
How do we give glory to Him? By loving as He loved us. That’s the commandment Jesus gives in this gospel: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Such a simple instruction. But why is it so hard for us to live? Could it be that the love Jesus calls us to—agape—is not a matter of liking someone or feeling warmly toward them? That it’s not about approval or sentiment, but about the complete gift of ourselves?
Agape is the love that frees us from our ego, from selfishness, from our endless addiction to our own wants and needs. It is love with the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is love that seeks the good of the other before ourselves. T.S. Eliot once described the Christian life as “a condition of complete simplicity costing not less than everything.” That is agape. That is the love Jesus speaks of.
Are we willing to love like this? Can we pray, work, forgive, and serve in a way that points back to Him? Can we give even our joys and sorrows to Him, as an offering of love?
Take a moment today to ask: Is love the soul of what I do? And then, humbly, ask for the grace to live this love—not in part, but in full. Not with some of yourself, but with everything. That’s how we glorify Him. That’s how we live as His disciples.
Yours in Christ,
Father Rudy