by Joseph Rodriguez

I forget a lot of things. My memory is terrible—I barely remember what I had for dinner last night. But perhaps I am not alone. We live in a busy age, constantly distracted, allured by the next hot topic. This frenetic dizziness makes it hard for us to see how our lives can be complete and whole. There is no tempo to the songs of our lives; no rhythms that orient us amidst the instability we confront on a daily basis.

Faced with this unsettling fact, I am led to question my legacy. When all is said and done, what will I be remembered for? What will I leave behind? Will they remember my savviness? My arrogance? My smile? I don’t know.

I would hope that, following in the footsteps of Jesus, the indelible imprint I make on the world is love. In the end, that is the only thing that will remain, the only thing that will be remembered of anyone. As St. Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Love is the greatest theological virtue, for it “binds everything together in perfect harmony.” This is a profound thought! What if we saw the world as bound together in love? 

Love is at the center of the universe because “God is love.” But love, as it is understood in the Chrisitan tradition, is not just a fuzzy feeling. Love is about seeking the well-being of the other despite the cost. When we love, we realign ourselves with the very stuff that makes up reality. When we love, we become more of who we were made to be. We become more fully alive, more fully human. This is because we were made for love.

And this is the love that was demonstrated most clearly on Good Friday, when God, who is love, found himself on a cross, dying for the sins of the world. There is no greater love than that.

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1. 1 Corinthians 13:13, New Revised Standard Version.
2. Colossians 3:14, New Revised Standard Version.
3. 1 John 4:16, New Revised Standard Version.