Love is an act of the will

Many of us have probably heard the rather counter-cultural statement that "Love is an act of the will" and not a feeling as our culture seems to hold fast to.

I've understood this point (or at least I thought I did) for quite some time, but I've also recently realized that there's a second part to this idea that I may have overlooked before: Accepting love is an act of the will.

When I look to Christ, especially on the Cross or in the Eucharist, I know that He is totally choosing to give himself, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, to me. But, what I often overlook is whether or not I am fully accepting his love.

I came upon this realization recently when I was thinking about a new relationship I'm in. Practically out of nowhere, this amazing man comes into my life and start treating me well and being incredibly kind to me. My initial reaction was, "Seriously, what gives? I don't deserve any of this. Why are you being so nice to me?"

Then I realized that this is very similar to how I relate to God. I've always struggled with seeing myself as worthy of God's love -- so much so that makes it damn near impossible for Him to get into my heart. I just figured, "OK, not worthy of your love? Well, I'll just get along fine by myself then." This, of course, is pride masked as humility, all wrapped up nicely in despair and self-loathing.

So now that I have a truly amazing man waiting patiently for me to let him into my heart, just a little bit at a time, I've realized that all along God has been doing the same thing on an infinitely deeper scale.

Of course I'm not worthy of His love. None of us are. But that's the whole point. God wants every bit of our broken and battered little hearts so that He can reshape them into a beautiful, new creation.

We're not pieces of dung covered in snow.

We are broken souls remade in the fire of His Sacred Heart, but only if we choose to let Him in.