The Risk

"God insisted that we love one another as he loves each one of us. And we read that in the Gospel very clearly- love as I have loved you- as I love you- as the Father has loved me, I love you- and the harder the Father loved him, he gave him to us, and how much we love one another, we, too, must give each other until it hurts. It is not enough for us to say: I love God, but I do not love my neighbour. St. John says you are a liar if you say you love God, and you don't love your neighbour. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbour whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live. And so this is very important for us to realise that love, to be true, has to hurt. It hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt him." from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, December 11th 1979

It is a great risk to love. We risk our hearts each day we choose to love the way in which we are commanded. The risk of heartache is real. Just ask someone who has lost one they have loved. How much easier to keep to ourselves and deny our need to love and be loved. Thank you, God, for people who risk themselves to be love to another today. Bless those who have suffered loss in loving the way You taught us to love. Remind those who stand on the sidelines, of the great blessings received by loving as they were created to love; and encourage them to risk to love today. Although the risk is large, the joy is larger still.