Perhaps you’ve never realised it, but temptations, when they occur, strike against your purposes, your faithfulness, or your vocations. Have you also noticed that, in those moments, you begin to doubt your own ability, question whether what you believe in is truly worthwhile, and often allow yourself to be carried away by thoughts that make love something conditional, as in the phrase: “If you love me…”. A classic example is Delilah, who did exactly that with Samson, with tragic consequences.
Yet love, by its very definition, is unconditional.
The Prayer in Gethsemane
In Gethsemane, the predominant feeling in Jesus was agony — a term in classical Greek that conveys the idea of combat. How much did it cost Jesus Christ not to make his love for humanity conditional?
After the prayer, Jesus emerged transformed. The great lesson is that whenever we feel tempted, we should remember the power of prayer and say: “God, help me to want to!” At the moment when he exclaimed, “Take this cup away from me,” Jesus also made it clear: “I need to fulfil this stage.”
Jesus already foresaw the suffering, but his request was precisely not to condition his love.
Immediately after the prayer came the first temptation: the betrayal by Judas. And many questions arise:
Did Judas love Jesus Christ? Probably yes.
Did Judas betray him for money? Probably not.
Might Judas, impulsively, have tried to force Jesus into becoming the warrior Messiah the Jews were expecting? Perhaps, hoping for a reaction similar to Peter’s, who cut off the Roman soldier’s ear.
Was Judas’s betrayal necessary for the prophecy to be fulfilled? No, after all, everyone knew who Jesus was.
Judas’s despair lay in thinking that Jesus’s love was not unconditional.
During Holy Week, all the apostles behaved poorly, especially Judas, who took his own life, and Peter, who denied Christ. Only John remained steadfast, together with Mary. But where were the other nine apostles?
The characters in the Passion of Christ are men full of flaws, insecurities, fear, anguish, and doubts. Before the crucifixion, Jesus could still have given up. Yet he endured: the scourging, the Way of the Cross, and the trial before Pilate.
On the Cross
When Jesus cried out on the cross: “My God, why have you forsaken me?”, at first glance it might seem like a cry of despair. But to understand this sentence, it is necessary to grasp the truth behind those words: it is the beginning of Psalm 22, the Psalm that prophesies the Passion of Christ and the victory of the One who did not give up.
How to Live Unconditional Love?
“My God, why do you not give up on me?” — this phrase from Job reflects the certainty that God loves us unconditionally.
Jesus teaches us: “Love one another as I have loved you (unconditionally)!”
It is interesting to reflect on how even children’s songs express the idea of conditional love, as in the nursery rhyme that goes:
“The ring that you gave me was made of glass and broke; the love that you had for me was little and ended.”
Likewise, the famous phrase “may it be eternal while it lasts” expresses loves full of conditions, far from the true, unconditional love that Christ teaches us.
The Prodigal Son: An Example of Unconditional Love
Another great example of unconditional love is the parable of the Prodigal Son. It tells the story of the younger son, full of failures, who, upon returning, places himself in the position of merely a servant to his father.
It is important to realise that God is capable of anything except forcing someone to love Him. Because unconditional love means allowing the other to love freely.
As for the elder son, although he stayed at home, he lived his whole life as a servant. He never understood that he worked with the father and not for the father.