Love Is Life that Pours Itself Forth1
Why must the path of self-giving love also be the path of the cross? Can’t we be loving people without having to travel the way of the cross? No, we can’t. At least, we can’t be the deeply loving people that God has called us to be (Mt 16:24; Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23). Because we were created to share in the divine love, we’re called to learn to love as God loves. And that means being willing to break ourselves open and pour ourselves out in love for God and our fellow human beings, just as Jesus did on the cross. And that requires busting some holes in the walls that we have all built around our egos, the walls that get in the way of love: walls of pride, and self-protection, and self-pity, and fear, and prejudice, and hatred, and anger, and . . . the list goes on and on.
Sacrifices made for the sake of the beloved and suffering undergone for the sake of the beloved help to punch holes in those walls we’ve built around our egos, holes that allow the divine love to flow into us more freely and to then flow back out of us to God and neighbor. Self-sacrifice and suffering for the sake of others help us break out of the self-imposed dungeons of our egos and join more fully in the eternal circulation of love. That’s why sacrifice and suffering turn out to be required courses in the school of love. That’s why we all have to be willing to walk the way of the cross. Yes, it can be painful (sometimes, very painful) to open ourselves up to love, to open ourselves up to self-sacrifice and suffering for the sake of love. But doing so also turns out to be immensely fulfilling, even joyful. We are most fully alive when we are most fully breaking ourselves open and pouring ourselves out in loving self-gift to God and neighbor, for it is precisely then that we participate most fully in the superabundant, overflowing love and life of God.
[i] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1979, p 25.
This article is an excerpt from Rick’s latest book, The Book of Love: Brief Meditations.
Photo by Henrique Jacob on Unsplash
Copyright 2023 Rick Clements
Rick Clements
Rick Clements writes and speaks about the Catholic faith, with a particular focus on the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar and its application to Christian discipleship and evangelization. Rick is the author of two books: The Meaning of the World Is Love: Selected Texts from Hans Urs von Balthasar with Commentary (Ignatius Press, 2022) and The Book of Love: Brief Meditations (En Route Books, 2023), and he also writes articles for Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. He has a PhD in clinical psychology from Purdue University and a certificate in lay ecclesial ministry, and he has taught psychology at several universities. Find more of his work at richardclements.org