Love is for the brave

Love is not just a sweet word. It is a choice of the courageous because it demands an asceticism that starts from the awareness that even my most beautiful and good word or gesture may not be at all motivated by pure love but by self-seeking.
Each day I am called to this journey of purification, to love even when I encounter indifference and rejection. It is actually the only way to purification. "If we love just those who love us, how can we be true children of God who makes the sun shine both on the good and the bad?" It is not easy and I can always find reasons to throw in the towel.
Paul's Hymn to love inspires me not to give up. I can always be on a journey to true love.
We never arrive if our measure is the love of Christ:
Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.
But there is no need to lose hope. Our experience of God's pure love that accepts us, warts and all, will help us in this difficult journey towards true love. It is the only journey worth staking our whole life in.