Let us love one another because love is of God.
Remain in my love.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
Scripture tells us that these two things are true.
1. That we are created in the image and likeness of God
2. God is love.
Jesus makes it
clear that love is not just our commandment
but our calling.
Love is our vocation as disciples.
Yet,
if we are called to a life of love--
if this is our primary commandment--
then why is it often so hard?
Maybe it’s because we don’t really understand love.
Maybe our view of love is so tied up
in our personal history and baggage
that we can no longer embrace it.
Maybe our idea of love is so skewed by Hallmark movies
and lace-filled valentines
and we can no longer recognize it.
Maybe our experience of love is so colored by cultural
and social trends
that we can no longer understand it.
Love—
Biblical Love—
is not sentiment,
emotion,
or feeling.
Biblical love
is a theological virtue.
Faith, Hope, and Charity, (or Love)—
These are the three theological virtues.
Now, this name, Theological Virtue,
sounds strange and abstract...
What does this have to do with me?
But these virtues are not esoteric, remote or inaccessible.
They are the very stuff of God;
the bedrock of our souls.
God infuses these virtues deep within us,
and they animate and give life to all other virtues.
Theological virtues give us the ability to act as God’s children.
They are God’s promise that the Holy Spirit
is active and working in our lives.
Charity, or love,
is the virtue by which we love God above all things,
and our neighbor as ourselves. (CCC 1822)
The practice of all other virtues—
prudence,
justice,
patience,
kindness—
is inspired and upheld by charity;
by this particular love which lifts us up;
sustains us;
empowers us;
invites and enables us to love God and each other. (CCC 1827)
This virtue offers us freedom. (CCC 1828)
Because we are created from love,
for love,
we will never stand before God as slaves,
trembling in fear.
Because we are created in love,
for love,
we will never relate to God
as paid mercenaries,
whose loyalty is commanded by the highest bidder
and the greatest division of spoils.
The virtue of love means
that we are sons and daughters of the King,
beloved and treasured heirs
who are invited into relationship through love.
This love was born before time itself.
It overflowed from the exuberance of a Creator
who exploded voids into planets,
and stars
and spiral galaxies.
This Creator
formed humans from stardust
and loved us into life.
This love continued to overflow
creating zebras,
and pileated woodpeckers,
and giant armadillos
and mountains capped with snow --
for no other reason
than joy
in the act of creation.
This love is infused deep within every person
every animal,
every insect,
every leaf that unfurls in the glint of spring.
This love
is not the sentimental jingle of a florist’s commercial
or the formulaic affection of a romantic comedy.
This love
is gritty and powerful and strong.
This love
was tested in the crucible of Gethsemane
and the agony of the crucifixion.
This love waited for us
in the stillness of the empty tomb.
This love is a way of witnessing to the Truth,
and like all true things,
responding to it—
embracing it—
living in it is not easy
or simple,
or without cost.
For many of us, love is difficult.
We hurt.
We are bound—
we are captive to sin, or fear,
or our own painful history.
We are broken and thirsty in ways we don’t fully understand.
We carry the weight of old scars
and live in the folds of new wounds.
We know that despite our love and our prayers,
marriages often fail;
children turn away from their childhood faith;
friends abandon or betray us.
Memories of these sorrows can return
with the ferocity of stealth bomber,
leaving us gasping for air,
and vowing
never
ever
to become vulnerable again.
It’s so much easier,
and safer,
to protect what we have
than remain open to pain.
Maybe…
we think,
Maybe love is for the weak,
and it’s better to be strong.
Maybe love is for the few and not the many.
The idea that life is rooted in scarcity rather than abundance
has a powerful hold on us.
We are tempted to see life as a zero sum game
with winners and losers,
lucky and unlucky,
blessed and cursed,
strong and weak,
beloved and scorned.
We scroll through carefully curated images on social media;
we read about the happiness and success of others
and it can be easy to believe that everyone we know is
prettier, happier, more accomplished—
more beloved.
We think….
maybe there really isn’t enough love and goodness to go around.
Maybe life is a pie chart with carefully measured slices of grace.
Maybe God really does favor some over others.
And love becomes hard.
But it helps to remember that love is not an emotion.
It is not feeling, sentiment, or whim.
Love is a virtue.
As a virtue, it is stronger,
and deeper
and more enduring
than anything life can throw.
Living into the Paschal Mystery of dying and rising teaches us
that love can co-exist with fear or disappointment.
Love can co-exist with grief and sorrow.
Love can endure sadness, anger, pain.
Love is a stance; a way of responding to life.
It is not rooted in our circumstances,
but in our relationship with God--
and that relationship endures.
Never fear that love is lost
because something is hard.
Never fear that love is lost
because we fail
or doubt.
Remember,
our Love carried a cross.
Our Love died so that we might live more abundantly.
That Love is poured out for us
each time we gather at the table.
Scripture tells us that these two things are true.
1. We are created in the image and likeness of God
2. God is love.
Everything else is commentary.
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