Stay faithful to the ideal of the apostle: “Give your life for your brothers and sisters.” In fact, “No one has greater love than this” (Jn. 15:13). Spend all your energies without rest, and be ready to give yourself to “conquer” your neighbor for God. (Cardinal Van Thuan, Five Loaves and Two Fish)

Reflection

There is a saying which states, “No one will care how much you know until they know how much you care.” “Be ready to give yourself” are, I believe, the operative words in this paragraph. To care means fundamentally to give of ones very self and not just out of our surplus or the time and scant attention we believe we might be able to afford people before we rush off to our next favorite thing. To give of our very self now – this is the ideal of the apostle.

It sounds like a very tall order and left to our own devices it would be (in fact, it would be impossible) but the reality is that we are not left to our own devices. God is with us and God’s Spirit has been given to us. When we do not believe that we can give anymore maybe it is time to give a little more and by so doing discover a wealth of reserves in ourselves of which we had little to no idea.