15TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C
MORE THAN DRACU-LOVE
LK 10: 25-37
MESSAGE
When the topic of love is discussed, for many it becomes a boring, ordinary, and trite topic. Because love can be applied to a favorite food, to a cherished pet, to preferred vacation place, or to a stress-releasing activity. So much of the meaning we assign to love can be, based on what I heard a good gentleman say, “Dracu-love” and not true love.
We all know the story of Dracula. He entices women to go out with him and attracts them with seductive words and gestures until he gets what he truly wants – to suck their blood, to snuff out their lives, to destroy them. Dracu-love is a false love because it never ends up giving but taking, not building up but tearing down, not preserving but consuming.
True love, which the scholar of the law seeks from Jesus, is for the sake of “inheriting eternal life.” Perfect love, which God alone can give and Jesus alone teaches purely, is not centered on oneself but on another. Thus, the Lord Jesus invites the man to go out of himself and dedicate himself to God and to honor his neighbor as himself. That is love that gives life.
Beyond mere decision or emotion, the Lord Jesus directs the seeker, and all of us today, to love concretely like the Good Samaritan, by stopping on our tracks and actually extending our hands, using our resources, devoting some of our time, to help those in need. The practice of love is in the daily acts of mercy we share to our brothers and sisters.
REFLECT
Stand in front of the mirror and frankly ask: Do I know how to love in a life-giving way? Or do I always love myself only in my dealings with God and with others around me. Lord Jesus, give me today the grace of love, the love that gives life to others, that honors the God who loves me first and always. Amen.
