Summary : Loving others is a choice we must continually make.
The time had come, the young man knew. At the dawning of this day, there was no longer any doubt: his boyhood was over.
He'd arisen early, in the gray half-light. First, he'd put on the trousers, shirt and jacket he'd laid over the chair in the corner of his bedroom. (No more knee-breeches for him; he was too old for that now.) Then he'd clicked open the shiny latches on his cardboard suitcase one last time and peered inside. Just making sure. Yes, he had everything packed for college. He did.
He was the first one in his family to go to college. The day the bulky brown envelope had arrived from the state university, bearing news of his scholarship, his parents had been so proud.
He went downstairs to a hurried bowl of oatmeal. Everyone ate silently, for a change. Then his father drove him, in the clattering Model T, the few short blocks to the railway station. His mother came along for the ride.
It wasn't long before the locomotive appeared around the bend, spouting steam. Still, no one said much of anything. It was one of those moments when there was simply too much to say.
The conductor cried, "All aboard!" Swiftly, the young man kissed his mother on the cheek and gave his father a perfunctory hug. He bounded up the steps and seated himself beside a window where he could look out at his parents. They seemed suddenly smaller than he remembered.
As the train lurched forward, his mother began to run along the platform. For a few seconds, she kept up with the train, as it picked up speed. It looked like she wanted to say something.
The young man pulled down his window and stuck his head out. It was then that his mother cupped hands to mouth and called out four words that would be etched in his memory all his life: "Remember who you are!"
Remember who you are. Words of advice any mother would gladly give a son or daughter, leaving home for the first time. The lessons are over, the chores are ended, the arm of parental discipline has extended as far as it can. From here on, discipline must come from within. No longer is it a matter of direction and correction. Now it has become a matter of character.
It's a fearful moment, for child as well as parent: one that's repeated again and again in families as generation succeeds generation.
"Remember who you are" is, in effect, what Jesus says to his disciples, as he prepares to say farewell to them.
It happens at the Last Supper. Already Jesus has taken a towel and bas