In the Gospel, Jesus calls us to “be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  When it comes to love, when it comes to mercy, it is always best to be on the merciful side.  Christ calls us to stop judging and condemning and enter into a life of forgiveness.  Then he says one of my favorite lines in the gospel: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”  I love these words of Jesus because they challenge us to love as we want to be loved.  They also encourage us to be extremely merciful because at the end of the day we truly desire God to be merciful to us.

However, when it comes to living this out, St. Francis de Sales goes the extra mile and calls us love without measure.  For months I have been enamored by this quote from St. Francis de Sales: “The measure of love is to love without measure.”  In our call to love, we must not be calculated, we must not hold back, but to offer our lives as Christ offers—to love without measure!  Take a moment today and ask yourself what your motive to love is.  Sometimes we love for selfish reasons, to get something in return.  St. Francis de Sales is calling us to let go of that and to simply love without wanting anything in return—to simply love for the sake of the other.

And sometimes we don’t have to look far to see examples of this.  Just a couple of weeks ago, my sister, Emily, shared a photo of her 21-month-old daughter Eleanor loving her little newborn brother Augustine.  This warms my heart every time I see it.  Sometimes we try to look for examples of love in extraordinary places.  Sometimes all we have to do is open our eyes to the love that goes on in our homes.

May God’s peace and joy be with you,

Fr. Jeremy

Ps. Thank you for your participation in the Annual Catholic Charities Appeal.  The people in need in our diocese truly appreciate the love.  You make a difference!