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Jesus Himself experienced much pain in life. Scripture tells us that He endured betrayal, arrest, condemnation, rejection and crucifixion.

He was despised and shunned by others, a man of sorrows who was no stranger to suffering. – Isaiah 53:3

Jesus’ suffering was extensive, but it was not the goal. He takes no delight in our suffering or His own. Pain is not pleasing to God. Nevertheless, Jesus embraced a life filled with suffering and accepted a horrific death!

Love was the goal. Suffering speaks volumes to our stubborn hearts because that pain was endured for you. That pain means you are treasured beyond comprehension. No longer can we doubt His love because His suffering makes it most evident.

God is love and mercifully He requires much less from us to demonstrate our love. By small acts of self-denial through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, we willingly offer our hearts to Him. Let us approach Lent this year with the desire to satiate His merciful heart with our love.

Dear Lord Jesus, grant me the desire to love you and the grace to show my love through small acts of self-denial this Lent.

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As the world gets ready to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, exchanging sweet notes of love and kindness, we naturally turn to the topic of love, considering once again this great mystery.  Saint John boldly states in his letter, “God is love.”  He doesn’t say God is loving, lovable, or even that He is a great lover- although He is all of these.   He writes, “God is love.”  The very essence of God is LOVE.  But what is LOVE?  St. Thomas Aquinas says, “To love is to will the good of another.” (Deus Caritas Est)

Our faith teaches that the Holy Trinity is a communion of love– the Father pours Himself out to the Son; the Son receives everything from the Father and, in turn, pours Himself out to the Father. The Holy Spirit is the love outpoured between the Father and the Son.  Mankind is created in this image of Divine Love and brought into communion with God through baptism and the other sacraments.  Because of this, the human person comes to know himself most fully when he/she is loved and in turn, loves others.   St. John Paul II says, “Man cannot live without love.  He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him.”  (Redemptor Hominis, 10)   

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, God’s love is renewed in a personal way for each person! It’s as if God says to each person in Holy Communion, “This is my Body given for you.  This is how much I love you!”  The Greeks had different words for different kinds of love, but the highest, agape, was a self-sacrificial love.  Pope Benedict said, “We can thus understand how agape also became a term for the Eucharist: there God’s own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us.”  (Deus Caritas Est, 14)

May each one of us on this Valentine’s Day be renewed in the awareness of God’s love for us, echoing with gratitude the words of the Psalmist, “How can I make a return to the Lord for all the good He has given to me?  The cup of Salvation I will take up, and call upon the name of the Lord!”  ~Psalm 116: 12 

The faith and adoration you offer matters personally to Him and adds to the cosmic homage He receives throughout time. Your faith stems from the chosen people of the Old Testament who steadfastly awaited the Messiah’s coming for generations. It is in one accord, too, with the blessed people of Christ’s time, including the Magi who gazed firsthand on His star in the night sky, and others who later witnessed His miracles, sacrificial love, suffering and Resurrection from the dead. Since then, countless additional souls have conformed their hearts to Him, and your faith, 2000 years later, joins the never-ending cascade of faith progressing through the ages.

Regardless of whether your faith seems to you firm or blown about by storms of struggle, it is a marvelous participation in the vast loyalty and submission of heart offered continuously to the King of Kings!

How precious is the faith you offer now in your own time and place. May your heart swell with joy as you participate with the Magi in the cosmic flow of worship destined for Christ until the end of time.