This week’s Connecting Point theme reminded me of a Pat Benatar song from the 80s, “Love is a Battlefield.” While it sounds like any other pop-rock heartbreak song, it actually delivers the message that love can be difficult, so much so that it feels like a battle within us. Jesus knew about this battle all too well in our Gospel reading, which begins with Judas betraying the Lord by leaving him and the disciples. What a heartbreak for Jesus! Yet, he follows with his greatest commandment: to love one another as he loved us.
Even during our personal struggles, real love costs us. It means listening when we are tired, enduring another person’s pain while carrying our own, forgiving even when we feel bitter, and choosing mercy over revenge. Oh, the battle that rages in each of us! But we cannot do it alone; only through the grace of our Lord can we endure. Not conquer—endure. Paul and Barnabas, in our first reading, fought through hardships, persecution, and rejection, yet they kept going. They knew that real love requires endurance to finish the race on our journey to the Kingdom of Heaven.
So, how can we make it easier? We need people to walk with us, encourage us, and pray with us in times of trouble. We need each other through breakups, betrayals, and rejections. We need to lean deeper into God’s grace, even when it costs us something. We draw our strength from the living Jesus within us. That is our path through the battlefield. That is what our community is all about. Love is not just a feeling we have; it is our witness to Jesus.
His love fills what is empty in our hearts so that we can pour it out for others. Jesus does not want us to become discouraged when love fails or becomes difficult; instead, he asks us to become living signs of his love. Our world seems bent on revenge, division, and fear. However, we can stand up in faith and love, powered by our Lord’s sacrifice, for a world that desperately needs it. As Pat Benatar sings, “Heartache to heartache, we stand!”
