“He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it. He that receiveth you, receiveth me: and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive the reward of a prophet: and he that receiveth a just man in the name of a just man, shall receive the reward of a just man. And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”
God orders all things perfectly and does not call His people to be rid of affections, but to order their loves according to God. Therefore, the love of family is a magnificent thing, but is called to be subject to the love of God, but if both cannot be preserved, the love of God must triumph. Now, the words of a man show what is in his heart, what he values above all else: “As the dressing of a tree sheweth the fruit thereof, so a word out of the thought of the heart of man” (Ecclesiasticus 27:7), and here the Lord exhorts His beloved to keep Him and His ways ever on the tongue: “But according to him that hath called you, who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy” (1 Peter 1:15). It is common to all to speak on the people one loves, but how rare is the one that speaks of God with this same love and affection! “Thy lips are as a scarlet lace: and thy speech sweet” (Canticlce 4:3). While this may sound like a difficult precept, it raises your love higher, that your natural affections may be anointed, transformed in divine love, and that the waters of your love may not flow through others but through God: “The fountain of gardens: the well of living waters, which run with a strong stream from Libanus” (Canticlce 4:15); “I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters” (Isaias 41:18). With this love comes the great suffering of love, for “They that are Christ’s, have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences,” that they may be free to love as God loves: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24-25). Love is a mighty cross, inviting the beloved deeper into love, but nothing so crucifies the human person as love, for through it they turn from what they were into what love demands: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14), and Jesus alone saw the cost of love before embarking on its pathway: “My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me” (Matthew 26:39). To take up your cross is to let yourself die that Jesus may live: “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20), and to follow Him in love, for the cross without Jesus is too much of a burden for someone to bear: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled” (Psalm 6:3). When you recoil from love due to its cross, you recoil from the life of God, for putting love into all things is the imitation of Christ: “Let all your things be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). To find love is to find life, and this is what Jesus means by finding and losing life, for to put one’s stake in the pleasures of this life is to miss the sweet savor of a life of love, whereas to lose one’s life for the ever-present, beautiful life of love in Christ Jesus is to truly find life: “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me” (Canticle 6:1), for the objects of affection in life all fade, but the love of Love remains forever: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20). It is important here to think about the nature of marriage, where love invites one to relinquish what they have, do, and are for the sake of this same love; is it no different with one’s heavenly Spouse? “My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed” that your Spouse alone has domain in the beautiful pasture of your heart, “a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up” (Canticle 4:12) that the waters of love may spring at His behest, rather than flowing perpetually over passing things: “He brought forth water out of the rock: and made streams run down as rivers” (Psalm 77:16). When you are brimming with divine love like this, Theophila, the one that receives you receives Jesus, for you are His representative, His mobile monstrance, His presence of love to those that do not know to go to Mass or the adoration chapel, that those who do not know His love may encounter it firsthand: “The spirit of the Lord hath spoken by me and his word by my tongue” (2 Kings 23:2). The King of Kings has so humbled Himself to make Himself present in you, that you may do with His presence what you wish, being His representative, and in turn the one that encounters you encounters Him, and that shows the essence of love, which is the Father: “God is love: and he that abideth in love, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). The one that thus supports a teacher or one pursuing the way of perfect love with what they have participates in the heavenly reward of this same person, that their love may be intertwined as brothers and sisters: “For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). Or this can mean that by nature of your state of grace, you possess, even to a small degree, the virtue of charity, which brings with it the universal vocation of a prophet and an expression of righteousness. This means that you possess love, and whoever receives you with love because of the love of God that you possess receives a heavenly reward for this act of love. Even the smallest act of love is seen, for though one may not have the resources to provide for another, He mentions that even a cup of water will not be without reward. You and others may forget the little acts of love you put in everything, Theophila, but God does not forget. Like a parent keeping the art that a child made for them with love even into their adulthood, the Lord keeps as keepsakes your every act of love, down to the smallest, and to do good to one of His little ones is a precious treasure in His eyes.