Real Love Must Cost

(Part of the Church Militant Training Series. This follows from the post: Risking Spiritual Death)

Pope John Paul II said, “Real love is demanding. For it was Jesus – our Jesus himself – who said: ‘You are my friends if you do what I command you’ (John 15:14). Love demands effort and a personal commitment to the Will of God. It means discipline and sacrifice, but it also means joy and human fulfillment” (Pope John Paul II, Homily, October 1, 1979). Mother Teresa said of love: “Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.”

“We have a tendency to think only about self-protection, safety and avoidance of trouble. This tends to be our primary frame of reference. But God thinks relentlessly in terms of love, even when that love entails suffering. So, we ask ourselves what is our final frame of reference? Is it, ‘how do I avoid pain?’ or is it, ‘how do I love?’

So, if I wake up every morning and my basic question is ‘how am I going to avoid pain?’ then I am going to live my life in a certain way – ultimately, a selfish way. But if when I wake up in the morning I say, ‘How do I love today?’ then I will live the life of a saint” (Fr. Robert Barron, Sermon 555).

Jesus cautioned us to consider, “It profits man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his soul” (Matt. 16:26). St. Augustine said: “Two loves built two cities: the love of self even to contempt of God built the city of Babylon, that is, that of the world and of immorality; the love of God even to contempt of self built the city of God.”

“Walking the path of self-protection and self-promotion can, indeed, gain you the whole world, but the price is way too high. For it involves the compromising of the person God wants you to be; it compromises your soul. Your mission is to be a bearer of the Divine Love into the world, and this will always involve suffering, because it means the path of self-denial and because, in a world gone wrong, the Divine Love will typically be met with resistance.” (Fr. Robert Barron, Sermon 555).

(Church Militant Training Series continues with next post)