"So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other." (John 13:34)
The first review I ever got for my writing happened in the middle of the night. I was a young adolescent going through the pains and trails of being a teenager. I knew too I had been a pain many times to both my Mom and my Dad. One day, however, I realized just how kind, loving, and supportive my parents had been to me during this time and in fact for my whole life. I was too shy to tell them how much I loved them and appreciated them, face to face, so earlier that evening I had poured my heart into a letter and placed it where I knew they would eventually find it. Then I went to bed.
Hours later my parents burst into my room, shook me awake, and hugged me. I was in shock. I didn't know what was going on until I saw the letter in my Mom's hand. It was one of the few times I could ever remember seeing tears in my Dad's eyes. I didn't know what to say as I saw the love and joy in their faces. I just hugged them back and blinked my sleepy eyes as they held me. My simple note had touched them in ways that I couldn't then understand. All I knew was that it had made them happy and that was enough.
I still carry that memory in a special place in my heart. It reminds me again and again of the power of a single act of love. It reminds me again and again of how a kind word can heal a heart and change a life. No writing review I have ever gotten has meant as much as that first one did. It put me on a path that I am still traveling today. It showed me that in this life the only thing that truly matters is love.
In our last review we will all be asked the same question: "Did you Love?" (See Matt. 25:31-46) Start today to make sure that your answer to it is "Yes!" Love God. Love yourself. Love others. Make this world a better and brighter place with the love you share and the life you live.
Joseph J. Mazzella
