THE PARADOX OF LOVE

Father William F. McKee, CssR

A wedding is the only ceremony I know of that draws both smiles and tears.  Both for same reason: JOY!  The friends and relatives are happy for this man and this woman as they enter a new and beautiful stage of life.

THEY know well that marriages have their problems.  But at this moment they can only think of the tender love that this couple shares.  The thought of that love brings the tears and smiles.

WHILE love is reported to make the world go round, there is little open reference to the fact that love is also hard work.  Nothing really good comes easy.  Whether it is excellence in marriage or in sports or in our relationship with God or in our relationships with others.

THE love that lives in young lovers, married couples, good friends is usually the most treasured possession they have.  It is a love that will make any sacrifice to maintain the relationship.   The sacrifice frequently demands some form of blood, sweat and tears.  Maintaining oneness in times of adversity, sickness or death, sometimes demands heroic love.
 
NO one has said that loving God by obeying the Commandments and doing His will is easy.  As said above, nothing really good comes easy.  Since God is the greatest good that exists, the road to Him has to be difficult.  He calls upon us to show our love for Him by the love we show our neighbor.  ”For he cannot love God whom he has not seen, if he does not love his brother whom he has seen.” 1 John. 4:10.

IF we have any doubts about the pain sometimes involved in loving, we have to look at Jesus Christ on the Cross.  It was said of Him as He stretched out his arms and surrendered His life: “See what it is to love.”

LOVE is very hard to define.  It comes in many different shapes and forms.  Aristotle boiled them down into one simple formula: “Love is seeking the good of the beloved.”  So love is not “what can you do for me?” but “what can I do for you?”

ELIZA Doolittle in My Fair Lady tells Professor Higgins: “Words! Words! Words!  I am so sick of words.  Don’t talk of stars burning above, show me!” Love is not shown so much in saying as in doing. Jesus tells us in Mathew 7:21: “Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father.”  Jesus calls upon us to put up or shut up.

JESUS is the perfect example of true love.  He proved his love for us.  He said in John 15:13 “The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them.”  He did that Because of His love for us.  He gave His life for us.

ORIGINAL sin tends to make us think first of ourselves.   True love tends to make us think first of others.

IF we ever need a vivid example of what love can do to God, we should read the story of Jesus’ encounter with Peter after the Resurrection.   Jesus never said a word to Peter about the three times he had denied Him, He only asked: “Peter, do you love me?”    In John 21:15 Jesus asked this three times and three times Peter said that He loved Him.  Jesus knew that he did, because as John had said earlier in his Gospel 2:25 “There was no need for them to tell Him what was in their heart.  He already knew.”

IT is a consoling yet challenging thought that perhaps the only thing that Jesus the judge will ask us after our death will not be about our sins, but what He asked Peter: “Do you love me?”

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