Quality Love

Around a year ago, I wrote a little bit about love growing in quality, rather than in quantity, and I've been thinking about what "quality love" really is.

Real love is about giving yourself the way God gave Himself to us - in small and large ways, even to death. The gestures don't have to be grand; they can be very, very small. Sometimes it is those smallest things - the little details - that show us love the most clearly. And sometimes God asks for the grand gesture - for Abraham to offer Isaac, trusting in God even to the greatest sacrifice; or for someone like Justin or Thomas Becket to speak out for Jesus even to the last breath.

Real love is about making not just a contract but a covenant. This is, in fact, the difference between the legal understanding of marriage and the sacramental understanding of it. A legal marraige is a contract - you give this, I give that; in the end, if we split up, you get this and I get that. A sacramental marriage is a covenant - a contract not for material goods but for persons, body and soul, a contract that involves three parties - a man, a woman, and their God.

Real love is when you cheer your team to the very last second of the game, whether they have an insurmountable lead or couldn't possible come from behind to win. It's also when you stay at Mass until the final song is sung - cheering your team on in the last seconds, when the diehard fans are separated from the poseurs.