Jesus tells us that “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13) and challenges us, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (Jn 13:34). He then lives out this kind of love dramatically in his passion and death, letting go of literally everything – including his physical being, of course, but also respect, esteem, security, comfort, power, human friendship, and anything that satisfies the ego. We recognize the impossibility that we, of our own will, could ever love as freely and as perfectly as Jesus on the cross – indeed, that’s one of the big points, that only God is capable of true selfless love, and we can love like God only in the measure we surrender to God. But it would be a mistake to assume that we can only truly love “as I have loved you” by “laying down” our physical life. Rather, we are graced at every moment with opportunity to embrace the dying of our egotistical “false self” through detachment from security, belonging, and control. Centering Prayer and other contemplative practices are our training in living truly “open-handed,” meaning that we can welcome whatever God would place in our hand – even if that is a cross – and we can allow God to remove anything from our hands – even that which we convince ourselves is the basis of a good life… but is less than the infinite love of God.