Sacrificial Love

Jesus said to him, “It is also written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord, your God.’” (Matthew 4:7)

We live in a world that seems to move at great speed, disregarding valuable things. The effects of global warming are felt with crushing and devastating force in many corners of the world. Scandals of corruption and extremism plague countries, overwhelming the poorest and most disenfranchised. The lack of clean water and education for a large segment of humanity are problems without apparent solutions in a world dedicated to promoting wars, colonizing other planets, and replacing human labor with technology. The churches themselves are becoming empty. It’s as if a pandemic of lethargy and desolation has taken hold of our minds and souls.

We are becoming dehumanized because we are losing the concept of faithfulness. When we think selfishly and seek only comfort, convenience reigns, and we trample on the rights of others. It becomes even more serious when this begins to erode the fundamental foundation of humanity ‑‑ the family. What made the Holy Family great, a model for all Christians, was the unbreakable faithfulness of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus towards God, themselves, and their neighbors. By spreading love, it is natural that we would want to preserve nature, which benefits us all, and want to care for God’s creatures.

It is the commitment to sacrificial love for God and others that makes us worthy of reciprocity, admiration, and love from our family and friends. When we ignore this and indulge in worldly pleasures, everything disintegrates, and the most important foundations of family and society begin to crumble. Even worse, we tempt God by challenging Him with our conscious acts that go against the precepts of respect, dignity, compassion, and charity. We abuse the gift of the present and our talents, misdirecting them solely to derive pleasure and pursue money as the only possible goal.

God is pure, indissoluble, and eternal love. By being faithful to God, to our partners, to our children, to our friends, and to our neighbors, while always seeking to serve and heal, we receive love from the highest source in abundance. To go against sacrificial love is to go against our purpose on earth. With the measure we use, we will be measured, and that is why it is worthwhile to enjoy God’s love in harmony with a faithful life, rescuing and preserving the principles and things that are truly valuable to humanity.