Love Is All

"The Pharisees gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested Jesus by asking, 'Teacher, which commandments in the law is the greatest?' He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.' " --[Matthew 22: 34-40].

There is an awful lot of loud noise lately, but very little Love.

On television news shows and talk shows, people do not debate or converse. They simply drown each other out, shouting over each other until the time slot is up.  We used to dread cutting to the commercial break. Now the commercials are our only saving grace.

In American politics, candidates do not have a debate or a back-and-forth conversation on the issues. They simply set out to destroy one another personally. Whoever is left standing, relatively intact, wins.

In 1 Corinthians 13: 1, St. Paul said, "If I speak in the tongues of humans and angels but have no Love, I have become a reverberating gong or a clashing cymbal. "  Paul goes on to say, "If I have a Faith that can move mountains, but have not Love, I am Nothing."

Speaking without Love makes us an empty noisemaker. Even with all the Faith in the world, without Love, we are NOTHING. . .

And where do we find Love? We find it, first, within ourselves. In Romans10:8, Paul says, "The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart."

We ALL have the capacity to love others, just as much as we (selfishly) love ourselves. That is because, we are made in the image of God, and "the desire for God is written upon the human heart" (Catholic Catechism Part I, Section I0.) AND God IS Love.

We are created IN Love, by God, and FROM the Love arising from the union by our parents.

The very meaning of our lives is to receive Love and to Love others.

Tellingly, my parents did not believe in God. They also never hugged me or said, "I love you." When I was in my twenties, and my husband-to-be hugged me and said, "I love you", I thought he was doing something wrong!  When we would go to visit my husband's parents, I would stand awkwardly in their front hall with my hands along my sides, muttering, Hello. My dear mother-in-law would come up to me, and envelop me in her arms, and say, "You forgot to hug me!"  I didn't even know I was supposed to hug anyone, or say, "I love you."

Tellingly, my childhood was a traumatic landscape of not being fed, not being treated for my medical condition, going to school with black eyes, enduring verbal abuse, emotional abuse, threats, blackmail and on and on.

Just as Love is Life-Giving, so, a lack of Love results in a kind of Spiritual Death. Without Love in my childhood home, I began to shut down -- not eating, not speaking, not feeling emotion, not sleeping.

My Life today bears no relationship to my early years. The reason is well beyond having good food, medical care, a safe place to live -- it is ALL because of being allowed to Love and BE Loved.

Today, I spend every waking minute actively loving others. Shopping for my family, tending our garden, cleaning our house, making meals, helping our son with homework, washing the clothes. I knit hats and scarves for the homeless shelter. I donate to the food pantry. I support a village in Africa, where funds raised are building a much-needed school. I give away clothes, furniture, tuition assistance, books. I regularly call friends who live alone.  I share food from my table with those who have less.

Without Love, I would not have been born, and I never would have survived. Today, I give ALL the Love I've got. . .

"Love one another deeply, from the Heart." -- [1 Peter 1:22].

{Related Postings : "The Question of Love", 10/27/14; "The ABC's Of Love", 4/27/13; "Heart and Soul", 11/14/12; "Love Thy Neighbor", 10/23/11].

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