True and Genuine Love

What does it mean to love someone or something?  Our modern world today tells us "do what you love, do what makes you happy, and do what feels good." So then love makes us happy and feels good.  Yes and no.  When you are in the presence of someone you love, there is a peace and joy in our hearts that do not get troubled.  Even when there are challenges and hardships, where there is true love, peace and joy and hope remains.  Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.  "Where charity and love are, there is God."

True and genuine love is the love that comes from God.  The love with which God created us and for which God created us.  Loving is wanting and willing the good of the other.  Sometimes this love feels warm and fuzzy, but sometimes this love comes in the form of discipline. When a parent disciplines his child, he does not because he enjoys it but because he wants what is best for his son.  Likewise, when the son disrespects his father and runs him up the wall, yes, the father may be upset and disappointed, but he never stops loving his son.  This is true love, the love that comes from the Father.  Though this love is given freely by God, we must choose to receive it.  If we do not receive this love, we will not be able to give this love to others.  In other words, if we do not allow ourselves to be truly loved by God, we will not be able to "love others as ourselves."  Only when we have received this love are we able to love others with that love.  However, the world cannot and does not offer this love, yet those who live in the world today run with the love it gives to them - a selfish love, a love that does not endure, but rather a love that runs away and hides when storms and turbulence come. True love is rooted in something and someone that never changes - the Father.  The love the world gives is rooted in fame, wealth, pleasure, utility -- things that all change and remain impermanent.  Do you really want to be loved with a love that changes, that disappears and hides when the going gets tough?  Or do you want to be loved with an eternal, unchanging, and enduring love?

Jesus tells us in the Gospel to love those who hate us and to pray for those who persecute us. Why? Because those who hate us and those who persecute us does not know Christ.  They hate us and persecute us because they are hurt and wounded.  They are hurt and wounded because they have not been loved well.  They have not been loved well because the love that they have been seeking and running with is the love that the world gives to them.  They hate us and persecute us because they have not received well the love of God.  And we who hear the Gospel and strive to live it out have received this love and because we have this love we can see through the hearts of those who hate us and persecute us.  Since this love is freely given by the Father, it is a gift.  And since it is a gift, it is meant to be given away.  So in receiving this love, it is only proper to pass it forward.  People hate and persecute because they are in pain.  We must let them know that they are loved.  They are loved not because of what they can offer us, but because they just are.  They are loved by the Father because He called them "beloved."

True and genuine love withstands war, hate, and persecutions. True love comes from God.  We were made out of and for true love.  We are called to love others with this love.  Have you received this love?  Open your hearts and let the Father love you so that your peace, joy, and hope may be complete.  Look at Rembrandt's painting below. The Father is waiting to embrace you and love you.

Father, teach me to receive your love.  Help me to reject the lies and the love of the world.  Teach me to love with Your love.

Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt
 

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