When the evening of this life comes, we shall be judged on love.
St John of the Cross, Sayings of Light and Love, 57

The course of mortal life is strange: we appear from nowhere, receive an education, and then enter the wider world where we are fortunate to earn a living. Soon the implements of daily life take charge of us in our striving to keep alive, and they may easily assume the nature of idols. The great demand is success: that we shall have done our work well and been rewarded by the acclaim of society. This is at least as important as money, for it confirms us in our toil, giving us a sense of importance, and showing the way forward. But what is success in terms of our personal life? All our efforts fade into the background as we prepare for the final lap and retirement swallows up past achievements in a dusk of memories. We prepare for our journey to our "everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets", as Ecclesiastes 12.5 so poignantly puts it. Indeed, what does a man gain by winning the whole world at the cost of his true-self? (Mark 8.36)

It is when we are alone in the gathering darkness of the evening that this terrible question should confront us. What have we done this day to have made our existence useful to others? If we think in terms of money and commodities we may strike a temporary abode of security, but at the heart there lies a void if human relationships have not been enriched. Things can so easily separate us from our own finer feelings and the fellowship of our neighbours. When these things disperse, we can see the residue more clearly. This is the depth of relationship we have attained with the people close to us in our family and at work. Have we acted in such a way as to foster trust and friendship, or have we simply used others as tools for our own material advancement?

Martin Buber, in I and Thou, writes, "All real living is meeting." In that coming together something of the other person attaches itself to me, as I give to him or her. In the very personal art of teaching, for instance, the teacher should not merely deliver the doctrine to the pupil, shielded by technical knowledge from direct contact. There should be an openness, an unashamed vulnerability, so that the student can question the teacher and have no compunction in pointing out the deficiencies of what has been imparted. In this way the teacher's comprehension and insight are broadened even if there is an immediate humiliation, a loss of face. But in fact something much more valuable than information has been transmitted: in the care and honesty of the encounter, the love of God has poured into the teacher's heart as the work proceeds, while the student becomes increasingly receptive to the essence of the mentor. This is out of all proportion in value to the knowledge gained; indeed, it approaches, however humbly, the unitive knowledge which is the basis of love.

Following the words quoted above, St John of the Cross adds that we should learn to love as God desires to be loved and abandon our own ways of acting.

Loyalty is my desire, not sacrifice,
not whole-offerings but the knowledge of God. (Hos. 6.6)

What is it that the Lord asks of you?
Only to act justly, to love loyalty,
to walk wisely before your God. (Mic. 6.8)

All the affairs of the world pass away as we quit the realm of mortal strife in sleep, and later on in the death that is the door to a new existence. In the familiar words of 1 Corinthians 13.13, "There are three things that last for ever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them all is love." Let us therefore flow out in love to all creatures, and especially to our human adversaries, as we prepare to end this day in blessed sleep. The love will proceed even when we are asleep, as it will surely do when we "quit this mortal frame", as Alexander Pope puts it ("The Dying Christian to his Soul").

May I be so open to your love, Lord, that I do not betray my deepest convictions in the cause of expediency, but am ready to sacrifice my life for my friends whom I may increasingly identify with humankind at large. May I be so full of love that my witness helps to raise the world from death to new life.