What we usually compress into the last sixteen or eighteen hours of His life on earth, and describe as the Passion of Christ, is, indeed, His Burning Love for His people. As God the Son, He bore witness to the love of God the Father, and Jesus calls all those who follow Him to carry on that same witness in His Name. The very purpose of our lives is to be visible signs of God's unconditional love; we are judged, therefore, not by what we say, but by what we live. When people say of us, "See how they love one another," they catch a glimpse of the Kingdom of Jesus, and are drawn to it as though by a magnet. In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred, we have the privileged vocation of being living signs of a love that can bridge every division and heal every wound.
We are often preoccupied with the question, "How can we be a witness in the Name of Jesus? What are we to say or do, to make people accept the love that Jesus offers them?" Such questions express our fear far more than our love. Jesus shows us, instead, the true way of being witnesses. He was so full of Love, so bound up with the Will of God the Father, so burning with zeal for His Kingdom, that He could do nothing other than bear witness to His own burning love. Wherever He went, and whomsoever He met, power went out from Him, and that power healed people of their brokenness, whether physical, mental, or spiritual. This indescribable power is His Burning Love for His people. As Luke records in his Gospel, "And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all" (Luke 6:19).
If we wish to be witnesses as Jesus was, our only concern ought to be to remain thus alive, burning with love for Jesus and for His people.