Love Is the Answer 

   “To be well versed in Scripture and all the sayings of philosophers will not profit you if you are without God’s love and His grace.” (Thomas à Kempis, “The Imitation of Christ”) 

   More and more I am convinced that the only way to God is through love.  Not love as we normally define it in our broken world but love as it truly should be, a conscious desire for the good of the other.

   I love studying scripture and holy writings.  I enjoy reading about the lives of the saints.  The more I learn the more I like it, but I also realize that knowing the words and the actions of others does me know good if I don’t incorporate the love that led to those words and actions into my own life.

   Some quote scripture by verse and chapter, but how many of them are living those words in their lives?  It seems that many times it is an effort to impress others or to prove a point of their own rather than to share the love of God.

   Even Satan and atheists are familiar with scripture.  Satan quoted scripture in his attempts to entice Jesus to turn rocks to bread, to accept worldly power, and to tempt God.  Atheists are often experts at turning scripture on its head in an attempt to prove there is no God.  Both Satan and atheists know the scripture, but they don’t understand the love contained within.

   St. Paul wrote, “If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.  If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fulness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all.  If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatsoever.” (1 Cor 13: 1 – 3).

   There is no greater gift than the love of God and there is no more Christian attitude than to share that love with others.  Regardless of all else, love truly is the answer.

 

Lord, teach me to love.  Not as the world loves but as You love.  Caring not for self but for the good of the other.  Amen