Loving One Another: What Three Weeks in Europe Taught Me

In September, 2022, I traveled to Europe for the first time. I stayed there for three weeks, exploring Rome, Florence, and many other places. Ever since the very first day being there, I loved it. I couldn't believe how different everything was—the people, the food, the buildings, even everyday life there made my previous years in America seem like fiction.

I noticed a lot that month. I'm not sure how anyone couldn't.

The old basilicas of Rome

Some of the ones that hit me the most were the old basilicas they had scattered around Rome—I just couldn't get over the incredible artistic skill displayed in every one.

Many of them depicted Jesus, Peter, Paul, and many others in beautiful sculptures, mosaics, and paintings. The art itself spoke of the love of The Creator, and every single church we went to did that. None of them I saw were built to inflict harm. They don't push you. They don't twist you. They don't define you. They don't portray anything else in a negative light. They were constructed solely to help explain a message of love.

Each of us matters equally

That's one of the things I'd realized being there. In The Creator's eyes, each one of us is unique—with our own talents, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, strengths, and fears. Not one of us is the same, yet we all matter equally to Him. And as The Creator loves us, we should always do the same for each other.

Loving one another—one of the most important principles Jesus taught—remains one of the core foundations of what I live by. Doing so showed me respect, discipline, integrity, and much more. It helped shape me into who I am, and my longstanding relationship with friends and family.

Coming home was a shock

Exploring Rome and Florence helped me to realize those things, and many more. When I finally went back to my home in America, I was almost as shocked as when I left it. I noticed things you typically don't think about living here—how much commerce and advertising are a part of our way of living, how much we can forget to stop working, and how many of us follow current ideas without questioning it much ourselves.

Going back to college and high school, I noticed that many people I knew seemed to be doing this constantly. None of them seemed to act on their own will—constantly glued to their phones, attending classes they never cared for, and never exploring anything on their own interest or merit.

As surprising as it may be, seeing the way we live after returning from Europe taught me just as much—if not more—than going there. Coming back taught me that we, as complex human beings, have immense power over what we say, think, do, and even feel.

Each one of us has the ability to create anything we envision, and the energy of our thoughts and actions can carry a very far distance.

Be decisive about who you are

So we should therefore be very decisive and aware over who we are and what we're really doing. To avoid acting simply because we're told to, or feel like we should do, is essential to uphold our duty to love one another.

Union

Another reason why loving one another is so important in our lives is Union. I believe that every one of us is connected in a single, unified consciousness. So to harm another means to harm everyone, including yourself. Just as The Creator does, we should love everyone—even others we dislike, even others we fear, even our enemies.

Jesus describes this rule in one of his most well-known quotes in John 13:34-35: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Another one of my favorites is found in Luke 6:35: "Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back."

As a follower of Christ, I believe his sayings to be true. My religious practice is to follow those principles, as much as I can. I have a daily commitment to uphold these teachings and to do what Jesus had emphasized, including loving my neighbors and even my enemies.