Spend It To Save It

Father JBoy - note to self, see him before the month is up; Lex, Thursday after the 6 p.m. Mass? - wrote something that I'd read earlier but which all of the sudden seems so much more apt today:

"There are certain things that are lost by being kept, and saved by being used. The essence of life is in risking life and spending life, not in saving it and hoarding it...

"Love: How do I find true love? By doing it, as 1st Reading from James: what is faith without work. If you say you love another person, but you do not show it, it is useless. If you say you care about workers and their plight, but do not concretely act on it, you are then a liar. Love is about doing and expressing it in action. St. Ignatius said that love ought to find expression more in deeds than in words. It means that love should be spent to save it."

Amen. As one of the most famous spendthrifts of love once said, which I will never tire of repeating, for I've discovered for myself its fascinating truth: "I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta ) Show it. Spend it. Be wasteful, prodigal with your love. And then draw even more deeper from the inexhaustible Source of all Love. Repeat as many times as necessary, for the rest of your life.

That's my game plan, starting now if I haven't already. :-) Be loved, and be love, beloved.