Love

Love. What is it? How do we show it?

Is it the person who feels deeply and  shows the most love? Or the person who quietly sacrifices their own feelings in order to let someone go?

The person who gave all they had? Or the person who accepted most ?

The person with many friends who love them? Or the person with none that can be happy for those that do?

The person who smiles and is cheerful and appears to never have a care (though they do, they just hide it)? Or the person who's heart has been broken from loving and not being loved in return?

Which person are you? What role do you play?

I have played all roles and I know that I still don't know how to love like Jesus does.

I look at the crucifix and I see Love--this is how I'm supposed to love. Arms stretched out wide, totally vulnerable. Not protecting oneself, but nailed to your cross. Not fighting it but accepting it, even wanting it, for the good of someone else. Forgiving even though it hurts. It's why Jesus waited to be on the cross to show how to forgive. It's supposed to hurt, because it's love.

This is love. This is how we're supposed to love. But we are so bad at it. We reject the cross, the nails, the thorns, the vulnerability. We look out only for being comfortable.

I want to love, fully and completely, arms stretched wide, accepting every pain that comes with my cross. But it is so hard. It is hard to give so much.

Thank God for such a Good Example of how to love completely. We are called to love this much. All the way, wide open. We are here to learn how to love. We aren't here to be successful but to love.

That is a huge job for us. It takes a lifetime to learn. And just because we die, doesn't mean we've learned to love. It just means we've run out of time.

 

I am under each of the species, but not every soul receives Me with the same living faith as you do, My daughter, and therefore I cannot act in their souls as I do in yours. (Jesus speaking to St.Faustina)