Love Every One

“Every person is Christ for me,

And since there is only one Jesus,

That person is the one person

In the world at that moment”

~ Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Today, I came across this quote in Eknath Easwaran’s book, Words to Live By: Daily Inspiration for Spiritual Living.

In this devotional reading, he talks about Jesus’s call to love our neighbor as ourselves. He relates this to the Buddha’s teaching that we are to love the whole world as a mother loves her child. These teachings are often thought of as metaphorical, but Eknath tells us that Mother Teresa takes these teachings literally. We have a tremendous capacity for love that we can share with every individual in our lives and every one we meet.

I’m reminded of the Fred Rogers quote, “I’m talking to you so right now you are the most important person to me. Our conversation is the most important thing to me right now.”

Let’s imagine that for a moment. Imagine if we could look at every one person we come in contact with and just for a moment, see that person as a dearly loved and precious soul. Because they are, and at that moment, only you have the power to love that one as yourself and to love that one as a mother loves her child. That one person is the most important person in the world, your interaction is the most important one in the world at that moment, and your conversation is the most important one in the world at that moment.

Eknath teaches that “life has one overriding purpose: to discover the source of infinite love and then to express this love in daily living.” Today, may we look around with the eyes of Christ, Teresa, the Buddha, Fred, Eknath, and a mother. May we look around with eyes of love, recognizing the power of each moment and the gift of every one person, “the one person in the world at that moment.”