Learning How to Love

The most important thing in life is how well we have loved. As St. Paul says so eloquently in the often quoted passage from First Corinthians 13, “If I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything that I own, and if I hand over my body to be burned but do not have love, I gain nothing.” The person without love doesn’t know God. It’s only by loving that we can come to know God. St. John tells us, “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” What a remarkable statement! God’s very being is love: one without love is without God. “The revelation of the nature of God’s love,” writes Luke Timothy Johnson, “is found in the free gift of his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our sins.”

During this month of May we honor Mary, Mother of God and the Mother of us all. Not only was she the mother of Jesus but also his most faithful disciple. Because of her it is easy to believe in an all good and loving God. Let us ask her to intercede for us and to help us to learn how to love as Jesus has commanded us. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at  the hour of our death. Amen.

Photograph by Brother Brian of Brother Anthony, Father Dominic and Brother Stephen on his Profession Day. Reflection by Father Emmanuel from Sunday's Eucharist.