What's Love Got to Do With It?

  Years ago in a meeting we were discussing evangelization.  I asked the folks why they might want to tell other people about Jesus.  They came up with a lot of reasons - because Jesus said to, because it's our calling, it's our Christian duty - the answers went on in that vein through the group.  But they didn't come up with the answer I thought was paramount.  So I asked them, "Do you love them?"
  Jesus told us, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and "love others as you love yourself".  So we have to ask ourselves, "Do I love them enough to tell them what Jesus has done for me?"  The great evangelist Paul also talked about the importance of doing things out of love in his letter to the people in Corinth.  "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

  For reflection:  What's love got to do with it?  It's not just a "sweet old-fashioned notion" or a "second hand emotion" (as Tina Turner sang).  Love is paramount.  What's my motivation?
  Let us pray.  Father, I have not always acted out of love in what I have done.  I have often failed you and failed the people I love.  Increase my love for them, please, and help me to do all the things you have called me to do out of your great love for them and for me.

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