Deacon Rod Knight
As humans we have a twisted sense of love sometimes. We love dogs, pizza, cheese curds, ice cream, good weather, the Packers and the list goes on and on. How often is lust confused for love?
But love is more than emotional butterflies in your stomach or the desire to be with another. Love is willing the good of another over oneself.
It emphasizes that love is not merely an emotion, but an active, self-sacrificial decision to seek the authentic well-being of others.
Love is a CHOICE. We choose to love. For love to happen there must be the lover (giving the love), the beloved (receiving the love), and the gift (the exchanged or shared love between lover and beloved). Remember that God is love, and love is part of God’s nature, not just what He does.
The Catechism teaches that God is the origin and goal of all love; it states, “‘God is love’ and love is his first gift, containing all others”.
We have basically described the Holy Trinity, the Father is the lover, Jesus the Son is the beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the shared love between them. We have been taught that there is Eros, Philia, and Agape love.
Eros the passionate desire for another. Philia is brotherly love or love of friendship made up of common likes and dislikes, sharedvalues and beliefs, and companionship. Agape is the summit or the highest, most selfless form of love. It is a self-sacrificing love.
Krystal Montgomery recently shared at a staff meeting that one of her children could not pronounce agape love and would say “a God paid” love. I should follow the Montgomery children around with a notebook!
We were purchased at a price (1 Corinthians 6: 20). God paid that price. Through sin death entered the world, we are a resurrection people and have been freed from death. God paid that price.
Jesus came down from heaven and became one of us to bring us back into communion with God the Father and keep us from the evil one. God paid that price.
For every sin we have committed, mortal or venial, Jesus, sinless, hung on a cross for us sinners. God paid that price.
When we leave our sins in the confessional and then leave absolved from them. God paid that price.
There is no greater love than to lay you life down for another. God paid that price.
When we wake up in the morning, we should know God paid that price. We should know that every good thing we have comes from God. We need to give thanks daily.
What if we woke up tomorrow with only the things we thanked God for today? But it is not about things, it is about relationships. How do we love God?
Is it with the self-sacrificing agape (a God paid) love or a self-serving “I will call on you when I need something” false love?
If you can’t do great things, do little things with great love. If you can’t do them with great love, do them with a little love. If you can’t do them with a little love, do them anyway.
(St. Mother Teresa)
We can grow in love by practicing in love. We can begin with little acts of love. Let’s love, I hear it is contagious.