Loving: The Brave Choice

This summer, I was asked to love people with everything I have because that’s what Jesus did.

I worked at Notre Dame Vision, a Catholic youth conference for high school students that involves some playing, some learning, some praying, and a whole lot of energy and joy. As a Mentor-In-Faith, it was my job to lead a small group and create a space where high schoolers could dialogue about faith and life.

I chatted about everything from Snap Chat (gotta love the newest filters) to Inside Out (best movie of the summer) to vocations with high school participants. My job was to encourage participants to recognize their gifts and how they would be used to change the world. In turn, the college students who led Vision strove to give of our own gifts wholly and constantly to the participants, a task which was both life-giving and challenging.

Loving, itself, is both life-giving and challenging. But while the choice to love can be challenging, I have never once made the loving choice in a situation and regretted it. Loving means summoning the extra energy to make a “good morning” greeting hearty and energy-giving, even if I’m still feeling sleepy (I have never been called a “morning person”!). Loving means listening to friends and parents and classmates and professors, and really hearing what they have to say before responding. Loving means having a humble awareness of my gifts and learning how to share them with others.

The perfect example of someone who always made the loving choice is Jesus. When the Word became flesh in the person of Jesus, He became the first example of the fullness of what God created man to be. Christ had the discipline, tenacity, and humility to love at all times, a concept that presented a “wake-up call” to humanity that came at a high cost. Persistence in love is one of the fruits of the Resurrection: one of the gifts Jesus gave to us.

Loving, I have learned, is the brave choice.

And the more we pour love out to others, the more we will be filled up with more love in return.

Image from communitylutheran.org