Love⋯. Isn’t it one of the most beautiful words in our language? Just as we cannot live without water or air, but usually do not realize their value, is this not true of love?
The columnist recently attended a religious service in a convent. A nun said, in private, “Father, I have become secularized; it's not easy for me to focus on the service.” Perhaps the nun’s confession is easy to understand. The distractions of our daily lives and worldly concerns take our attention away from some of the more essential things in life.
An interesting scene in the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is when they recalled their burning hearts on their walk with Jesus. “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)
What kind of experience was it? It must have been an experience of love that Jesus conveyed in the words He spoke and the intimacy they felt in his presence.
The Lord with whom they were talking was the Jesus they knew before his passion and death; they were experiencing that love again, which washed away all the despair and sorrow that had overcome them, seeing the horrible death that Jesus endured. The love they experienced gave them courage and strength to stand up again with hope to face the future. The flame of love began to bloom again in their hearts that had turned to ashes.
While studying abroad, he attended a Triduum liturgy at a monastery where he experienced a feeling of love in a liturgical setting. The love of the Lord, who gave His entire being as a gift without any conditions or reserve, permeated the Triduum liturgy. He reflected on how he had sometimes closed his heart to love in different ways and allowed himself to lose focus.
We all came into this world with love, and it was thanks to love that we were able to live until now. That love was the love of our parents, who gave without selfishness or greed, simply because they loved us. That love and friendship raised us and strengthened our relationship with family and friends.
We experience many important things in life and live with big plans, but in the end, we realize that love is the most important thing in our lives. The problem is that we realize the nobility of that love only when we experience a significant crisis or trial, and our own dull hearts regret why we have lived so insensitively to that love.
God conveys His ardent love to us through countless human loves. In particular, He leads us to open our eyes to His love through the entire life of the Church.
The Gospel of John ends with a conversation about ‘love’ between Jesus and the Apostle Peter. “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:16) The Lord also asks us a question. “Do you love me?”
How much have we lived with our eyes open to the love of the Lord and the love of the precious people around us? Haven't we lived with such dull and rigid hearts that we have forgotten the most important love in life? How about asking the Lord to open our eyes to love?
Let us remember that love is an act of the will—a decision, a choice.
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