Friday, October 4, 2013

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE


Lumen Gentium paragraph 42

 

Love is not a feeling.  If love solely consisted of the ache you have in your heart, then virtue would consist of sitting on your bed aching for those who mean something to you.  But as it is, that is the feeling of love, it itself is not love.  Love is in deeds.  It is who you are and what you do.  God, Who is love, gives us, through the Holy Spirit, charity.  But if it is to mean anything within us, “each of the faithful must willingly hear the will of God and carry out His will with deeds, with the help of His grace . . .”  And ground zero for the source of our ability to carry this out is our celebration of the Eucharist and other sacraments followed by prayer, self denial, works of “brotherly service,” and the practice of the virtues.
 
The supreme act of love is in the laying down of your life for others as did our Savior and those who do so become more fully like him.  That is why the Church has always so highly esteemed martyrs.  And in a world that is highly suspicious of such things, she has also always fostered the lifestyle of virginity and celibacy for those who wish to devote their lives more fully to the service of God.  Also held in high esteem are those who actively choose poverty or simple lifestyles, subjecting themselves to the love of God and conforming themselves more fully “to the obedient Christ.”
 
A lifestyle say of poverty is not in and of itself holiness, but a great pathway to holiness.  What do we need to do to make our lives a pathway to holiness?  We can begin pondering this with the warning from Scripture, “Let those who use this world not fix their abode in it, for the form of this world is passing away.”  1 Cor. 7:31

This brings to an end the chapter on holiness.

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