The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 5:17-26
Psalm 34:2-9
John 3:16-21

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

In our modern world an entire industry has grown that supposes to tell us what love is. We can find the perfect mate on the Internet. We can read countless self-help books to improve ourselves and make ourselves more attractive and lovable. We are pretty much free to practice love in whatever fashion we choose, according to modern society. We can fall in and out of love at a moment’s notice and we can certainly drown ourselves in narcissistic self-love with all the abandon we want. But, is any of this really love? Most certainly not.

True love is giving and not receiving. True love is the willingness to give our all. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This, the complete sacrifice of the best there is to offer, given freely and without holding back is true love. Anything short of this cannot be love in its truest sense.

How well do we practice true love? Do we give it all, or do we hold back some of the choicest part for ourselves? The Father provides the model for us here in the loving gift of His Son. Jesus said the greatest commandments were to love God with all we have, and our neighbors as ourselves. Anything short is not love, but something much different.

- Don Claunch, SFO
(dlclaunch at bresnan dot net)