More Than a Valentine

Love is more than an idea in the mind, a word on a piece of paper, a red card from the store. Love is an act, something one person does to another. It was the best thing the Lord did in his earthly life, the thing we note during the time around this table that displays emblems of his self-giving.

Acts have consequences so love, we say, is self-giving for consequences in others, for the good of the lives around us. We can also say that love is a self-giving that fosters in others love in return as well as something they pass forward.

In the case of Jesus’ final act of love, a memorial of it takes place repeatedly among us to whom he directed that love. Taking part in that memorial means returning our love to him and pledging to pass it forward to the others he also died to save (Matthew 10:38).