The key to fidelity

IT’S love, of course. But the real one, not the fake ones

that are proliferating around these days. It’s the love that comes

from God, is a participation of God’s love for all of us, irrespective

of who and how we are. It’s a love that goes all the way, without

counting the cost, and unafraid of all the sacrifices involved.

            It’s the love that will always make us young, new and

refreshed, in spite of the passing of years. It is self-renewing and

creative, and never runs out of initiatives to look and try new ways

of expressing that love in deeds. But it is also respectful of

tradition and faithful to commitments made in the past and meant to

last till death or forever.

            It’s the love that is not afraid of problems, challenges,

trials, failures, mistakes, difficulties, suffering, etc. It does not

surrender to them even if death overtakes it. It regards them as

opportunities and occasions to grow more in love, to grow more in

trust in God’s loving providence where everything works for the good

as long as we cooperate with him. It’s a love that will always fill us

with peace and joy whatever the situation.

            We have to understand that this kind of love can only be

had if we try our best to be with God, to identify ourselves with him

through Christ in the Holy Spirit. This kind of love can only be had

if we pray always, if we constantly look for Christ, find him, serve

him and imitate him, making him direct and shape our daily life.

            This kind of love can only be had if we have recourse to

the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist where we have Christ

offering himself as the bread of life. In that way, our love acquires

a supernatural power that goes infinitely beyond our natural powers.

With him, what we cannot do or solve are all taken care of.

            Yes, we have to do our part, and we, in fact, should give

our all. But we do it always with Christ. With him we would not be

afraid where our love and our life will take us. He takes care of

everything. What he simply expects from us is to trust him and to try

our best to cooperate with him. We therefore would always have hope.

And we would always find meaning in everything we experience in life.

            Let us see to it then that we are with Christ always. He

is real and alive, and not just a figment of our desire to believe. We

do not make him up in our mind. More than that, he is full of love for

us, full of solicitude toward us. He always has us in his mind and

heart. And he is actually actively intervening in our life at every

moment. There is no moment when he is indifferent to us. If we are

lost, he, like the Good Shepherd, will take the pains to look for us

and rescue us.

            We have to learn to discern his presence and his constant

interventions in our life. That is why, we need to develop certain

practices of piety so that we also can properly and actively

correspond to his constant interventions of love for us.

            Perhaps, we can make use of a certain plan of life that

would include, for example, some moments of mental prayer, so that

right from the start of the day, we can already feel the intimacy of

his presence and actions in our life. Then, having a recourse to the

sacraments, especially Confession, the Holy Mass and Communion, would

definitely be helpful.

            Let us have those practices that would help us live always

in his presence: regular spiritual reading, some devotions like the

Holy Rosary, the Angelus, etc.