Sep 10 Tue
What is it to love God?
Love is sufficient of itself; it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself.
Love is its own merit, its own reward.
Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself.
Love’s profit lies in its practice.
I love because I love, I love that I may love.
Love is a great thing as long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, and flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it.
Of all the movements, sensations, and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make a similar return however unequal it may be. For when God loves, all He desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him.
But love is not only words or feelings, it bears the fruit of deeds.
Unless we love the neighbor whom we see everywhere, we cannot love the God we see nowhere. Indeed, we find the neighbor at every turn, God, being pure spirit, is easily evaded.
Nevertheless, in Christian life, we need to integrate the two loves, with the help of grace to complete the job.
The problem, however, is that to love both the God we do not see and the neighbor whom we do see, we must first love ourselves, which for not a few people these days has become a barrier they cannot seem to overcome, a hurdle they cannot clear. Not in the post-human world that appears to be taking shape all around us, even as it assumes an ever more toxic and anti-human form.
Why is that? The answer is obvious. If you can only love what you know, then not knowing who you are, prevents you from knowing or loving anyone else.
We need true love for self. If being a person is possessing oneself, to give oneself and be useful, what happens with people who possess no self to give? These are people who do not fight to control themselves. Such is the nature of the identity crisis we are facing today.
All know that Real Madrid football club is the best team in the world. Recently the coach gave a pep-talk to the players which serves us to explain how to love God with deeds.
1. We must balance the attack (the effort to grow in virtue and piety) with the defense (the fight to reject temptations).
2. Attitude. Realize what team you belong to (you are a child of God). Behave as such. Concentrate on winning.
3. Commitment. All together in the Church. Do not think only of yourself, think of the team. Be committed to it.
Pic: Our Lady of the Almudena, Patroness of Madrid
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