Charity: Love Always Wins

Telling people we love something—a song, music, color, phone app or TV series is something we easily and readily do. Telling people we love them is a bit more complicated. It is easy for most, challenging for others and almost paralyzing for some. Why, we wonder, does it take so long for people to be moved to say the words? Many novels and movies are built on this theme, and when, at the end we find ourselves moved to tears, the words come liberating us all, making us promise to tell everyone that we love, that we, indeed love them. And then we forget… Until the next time. 

The Catechism puts it all beautifully: "Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Jesus makes charity the new commandment. By loving his own "to the end, " he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (1822; 1823) We all know the words, we all love to love them, but practicing takes just that—practice. 

To be loved, and to love, are the best and greatest things we can do and experience. The message here is simple: start with love, don't end with it. When you find yourself in a situation where forgiveness is needed and the hurt is unbearable, start with love. Don't wait to come to it at the end. Skip all the vengeance, hateful and destructive thoughts and words—start with love. It is where you ultimately want to end up and rightfully should. Love always wins.

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