ADVISORY

Since I'll be away many times these coming weeks, I will probably not be able to upload anything these coming weeks. Perhaps by August I'll be able to upload regularly.

12th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)

"Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?"

Mk 4:35-41

Jesus was sound asleep at the rear end of the boat. He was probably very tired so that even with the noise of the wind and the pounding of the waves, he remained asleep. The apostles were experienced fishermen. They knew they were in a dangerous situation. So they woke Jesus and reproached him: “Don’t you care that we’ll all die?” Jesus commanded the wind and the waves to keep still. And the sea became calm once more. Now Jesus turned to his apostles and reproached them: “Why are you so afraid? Don’t you believe that I care about you?”

Today we will confront the problem of evil in the world.

During World War II in a Nazi concentration camp, four men were hanged in front of all the prisoners. One of them was just a teenager. It took him a while to die because he was not heavy enough. One of the prisoners survived the concentration camp. After World War II, he wrote about his experiences in that camp. Talking about the hanging, he wrote that at that moment he asked: “Where is God?”

Hundreds of years before during the persecution of Catholics in England, many Catholics were tortured and put to death for remaining firm in the Catholic faith. One man wrote: “God must be asleep.”

Stated simply the problem is: If there is an all-powerful and good God, how come there is so much evil in the world? Either there is no God or there is God but evil is more powerful than God.

Some will say: “Let us trust God. He knows what he is doing that is why he allows evil to happen in the world.”

Others will say that God allows evil to happen but he will find a way to bring good out of that evil. This is the meaning of the statement: God writes straight with crooked lines.

Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist. He died in 1997. He was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp. He did not ask question: “If there is a God, how come were are suffering here in a Nazi concentration camp?” But he did offer the secret of surviving suffering. The secret is faith. He said once you lose faith, you will not survive. In fact, many committed suicide by flinging themselves on the electrified barbed wires of the concentration camp.

Rabbi Kushner lost his son to premature aging. This caused in him a crisis of faith. He survived that crisis and wrote a book to help people to survive suffering and evil. The title of the book is “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”. He is not a Christian. He is Jewish. But he does give an answer that we find in the book of Job. And it is this: “If we want to find an explanation as to why good people suffer, we will discover in the end that there is no satisfying answer.” Where does that leave us? It leaves us with the advice of Viktor Frankl. Keep your faith in God. It is that faith that will give you the strength to survive and go on living meaningfully.

Let us turn to Scriptures regarding the problem of evil and suffering.

What does St. Paul say? He complains of a thorn in the flesh. It may refer to a sickness, to a temptation or to a person who was giving him a hard time. He asked Jesus to free him from this thorn. But Jesus replies that his grace is enough to help Paul withstand this thorn. “Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness" (2Cor 12: 7-9). Someone had this in mind when he said: “God will not lead you where his grace can not keep you.” Here again the Christian response to suffering and evil is faith.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about the providence of God. Providence means that God takes care of us. He does not abandon us. “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?” (Mt 6: 26-30). We have been told that the Christian response to suffering and evil is faith. In this passage this faith is explained. We are told to believe in the providence of God. It means that God takes care of us because we are important in the eyes of God.

St. John Bosco experienced surviving a famine because of his mother’s faith in the providence of God.

St. John Bosco’s father died when he was barely 2 years old. On his death bed, his father encouraged his mother, “Margaret, have confidence in God.” Francis Bosco died leaving Margaret three children and his ailing mother.

That year there was drought. There was hunger everywhere. They found dead people in the fields with grass in their mouths. They were trying to relieve their hunger.

The Bosco family were farmers. They, too, were hungry. They asked a neighbor to buy food at the surrounding villages even at an exorbitant price. But he returned empty-handed. Margaret gathered the family and they knelt in prayer. Rising to her feet, Margaret said that her husband recommended confidence in God. She decided to kill the calf to provide food for the family. That calf was their insurance for the future.

With faith in the providence of God, but also with hard work, thrift and resourcefulness, the Bosco family survived the famine of that year.

Evil and suffering are inescapable. It is part of our life on earth. What is the secret to surviving evil and suffering? Faith in the providence of God.

CORPUS CHRISTI (B)

This is my blood of the covenant.

Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

When I was in the minor seminary way back in the late 60’s, I applied to be a member of the brass band. I was given to learn the piccolo. It’s a small clarinet (hence, piccolo) in the key of E flat.

One day our band master told us we had to learn to play several traditional church songs fast. Not only that we had to learn playing those songs while on the move.

It turned out that we were invited for the procession of Corpus Christi in one of the big parishes nearby.

The solemnity of Corpus Christi is the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. This solemnity is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday. But some countries have chosen to celebrate it on a Sunday in order to allow as many Catholics as possible to celebrate it.

For this year’s solemnity of Corpus Christi, I have chosen this passage as our jumping point: “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.”

The word “covenant” means a solemn contract, oath or bond. In the Bible “covenant” refers to the solemn contract between God and his people. The Bible speaks mainly of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant was ratified on Mt. Sinai. The New Covenant, on Mt. Cal-vary. The mediator of the Old Covenant was Moses. That of the New Covenant was Jesus. The Old Covenant was between Yahweh and his people, Israel. The New Covenant, between God and his people who are believers in Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant was ratified with the blood of bulls. The New Covenant, with the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.

Let’s focus our attention only on the New Covenant. What are the important consequences of the existence of the New Covenant?

First, it means that a Christian is at the same time a member of the Church. There is no such thing as a Christian who does not belong to the Church. That is why two of the effects of Baptism are: becoming a child of God and becoming a member of the Christian community, the Church.

Second, if I behave in a way that is seriously contrary to being a good Christian, I can be expelled from the Church. This is called excommunication. For ex-ample, anyone actively involved in abortion is automatically excommunicated or expelled from the Church. This includes the woman who underwent abortion, the doctor and the nurses who performed the abortion and those people who advised the woman to undergo abortion.

Third, Gawad Kalinga is no longer a church organization both because it has lost the official recognition of the bishops and because it has cut itself from the bishops. It is now just a civic or social organization. Official recognition from the bishop or from the parish priest is important if a group is to be called a church organization.

Fourth, if I am a member of the Church, then I have to participate in the life of the Church. Worshiping together at Mass is participation in the life of the Church. Joining a pilgrimage, joining a procession, supporting Pondong Pinoy are ways of participating in the life of the Church.

The New Covenant is a covenant between God and his People, the Christians. But there is also another covenant. It is between two human beings and which Christ has raised to the dignity of a sacrament—marriage or matrimony.

Marriage is so sacred that St. Paul uses the relationship between Christ and the Church to describe the relationship between husband and wife: “As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in eve-rything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her…” (Eph 5: 24-25).

Now some pieces of advice.

First, nothing gets better by being neglected. Your marriage will not become stronger by neglecting it. You have decided to get married because you have fallen in love with one another. But if you do not pay attention to one another, there is a danger that you will fall out of love with one another. On your wedding day, you became mag-asawa. But if you don’t nurture your married life, the time will come when “asawa” will lose the “a” and you will be “sawa” with one another.

How do you nurture your marriage? Take time out together. Go on a date. Only the two of you. Ask other couples for tips.

Second, on your wedding anniversary, celebrate. In my opinion, it is more important to celebrate your wedding anniversary than your birthday. Of course, this is true if your wedding is worth celebrating. And it is worth celebrating if you have been taking care of your marriage throughout the year.

How do you celebrate it? Go to mass together. After mass, renew your wed-ding vows. If a priest is available, do it before the priest. Go to a restaurant. Go ballroom dancing. Have fun together. If you have your unity candle, light it and say a prayer before going to bed.

This Sunday I said the following things.

Regarding the New Covenant. (1) To be a Christian is to be a member of the Church. (2) Excommunication is the penalty for serious unchristian behavior. (3) Recognition from the parish priest or bishop is necessary to be recognized as a Church organization. (4) I have to participate in the life of the Church. The Mass is a participation in the life of the Church.

Regarding marriage. (1) Nurture your marriage. Nothing gets better by being neglected. (2) Celebrate your wedding anniversary.

TRINITY SUNDAY (B)

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Mt 28:16-20

One day we are told that St. Augustine was walking along the seashore, re-flecting on the mystery of the Holy Trinity. He wanted to understand how could the Father be God, and Jesus be God and the Holy Spirit be God and yet there are not three gods but only one God.

He was distracted by the sight of a boy running to the sea, filling a sea shell with water and then pouring the water into a hole. Amused, he asked the boy what he was doing. The boy answered that he was going to put all of the water of the sea into the hole. St. Augustine smiled and exclaimed, “But that’s impossible!” The boy smiled in turn and said, “It is also impossible for you to understand the mystery of the Trinity.”

Neither are we going to attempt to understand the mystery of the Trinity. What we are going to do is to learn how to live by imitating the Blessed Trinity.

The fundamental Christian belief is that there is one God in Three Divine Persons. God is, therefore, like a family. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in a relationship with one another.

The Book of Genesis says that man is created in the image and likeness of God. From this we can conclude that we, too, are meant to live in a relationship with others.

We are born into a family. We work with others. We belong to the Church which is a community of believers. We have friends. We have textmates and chatmates. We are connected to others through Friendster and Facebook. All of these are relationships.

There is a song that expresses the truth that by nature man exists and lives in a network of relationships.

No man is an island, no man stands alone
Each man's joy is joy to me
Each man's grief is my own
We need one another, so I will defend
Each man as my brother
Each man as my friend.

But for these relationships to be happy relationships, there must be love. Without love these relationships become like hell. The Fifth Dimension has a song entitled, “There’s No Love in the Room.” It is about a marriage where love has died.

Sitting around the table watching each other
Feeling kinda sorry for my baby brother
There’s no love in the room
No love in the room.
Mama’s gone her way, daddy’s gone his
I wonder how long it’s been since they kissed.
No love in the room
Once before, long ago, it was here to see
Tell me what’s been happening to our family?

Without love, marriage and family life becomes hell.

Therefore, parents, if you want your child to grow up and have a happy marriage, then love them. You might be asking yourself what is the relationship between a happy marriage and loving your child.

If you want your child to have a happy marriage in the future, your child must be capable of true love. But true love must be learned. And your child will learn true love only if he or she has first experienced true love. And who will give him or her true love? Is it not you, parents?

And remember, it is not enough to love your children. They must feel that love.

Love has been used for so many things and in so many ways that it can be quite confusing at times. I love ice cream. I love my dog. I love my country. I love to swim on the beach. I love my friends. And so on.

Here we use love to refer to relationships between persons and that means human beings and God.

What is the test for true love? How do I know that I love in an authentic way? One criterion is this: My love is true if I seek the good of the one I love.

There were two sisters. One was successful. The other was not. The success-ful kept on telling the other sister to put in order everything so that by the follow-ing year she could go abroad and work. The following year the unsuccessful sister was still in the Philippines because she had not been able to put everything in order. So the successful sister gave her a deadline. My offer to finance your trip abroad is only good for this year. If you do not leave by the end of the year, you are on your own.

Believe it or not, this is an example of true love. It is tough love but true love at the same time. By setting a deadline, the successful sister was prodding the un-successful sister not to take things easy.

I have said in the beginning that the fundamental Christian belief is that there is one God in Three Divine Persons. God is, therefore, like a family. When we were baptized we became part of this family. We became God’s children. God became our Father.

The catechism speaking of Baptism states that we became adopted children of God. The term “adopted” needs to be explained. In ordinary speech, adopted means that a child has his own biological parents but through adoption another set of parents accept him as if he were their own child. AS IF is the operative word here. The child is not really their child but they treat him as if he were their child. This is NOT the meaning of adopted children of God.

The catechism uses the term “adopted” to differentiate our sonship from the sonship of the Word, that is, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. The Word was always the Son of the Father. There was never a time that he was not the Son of the Father.

Regarding us, on the other hand, there was a time we were not children of God. Before baptism, we were not children of God. After God’s baptism we became real children of God.

I use the word “real” because we really became God’s children. God does not accept us AS IF we are his children. No. Baptism transformed us into his children. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are” (1Jn 3:1).

As a practical consequence, when you pray to God address him the way you address your father. Is it Tatang, Itay, Papa, Dad, Daddy? Do this when you pray and at once you realize that there is now a difference. Iba ang dating!

They say that when you love someone, you make yourself vulnerable. It means that when you love someone, you give to that person the possibility of hurting you.

A friend is someone you love (ka+IBIG+an). Suppose it’s your birthday and you tell your friend to come for your birthday dinner. Suppose he or she doesn’t come. You will feel hurt, won’t you? Why? Because he or she is your friend. You might have invited the jeepney driver who gave you a discount because it’s your birthday. But if he doesn’t come, you won’t feel anything at all. Why? Because he is not your friend.

God loves us because we are his children. Because God loves us, he gives to us the power to hurt him. When we commit sin, we really offend God. That is why, when we pray the Act of Contrition we should really mean it.

“Oh, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you. And I detest all my sins because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. But most of all I have offended you my God, who are all God and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen.”

On this Solemnity of the Holy Trinity I have suggested four things that we can do:

1. Let us love our children so that they may learn to love. And having learned how to love, they may have a happy marriage and a happy family.
2. One of the criterion of true love is: Is this for the good of the one I love?
3. God is really our father. We are really his children. When we pray to God, let us call him Tatay, or Itay, Papa, Daddy or Dad.
4. When we commit sin, we really hurt God. Therefore, when we pray the Act of Contrition, let us really mean it.

PENTECOST (B)

Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1-11

Before Jesus was taken up to heaven, he gave his apostles this instruction: “And (behold) I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (Lk 24:49)."

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “power”. This means that the Holy Spirit would give the apostles the ability to do something which they by themselves can not do.

The New Testament reports two occasions when the promise of Jesus to send the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. And in both occasions we see the Holy Spirit giving power to the apostles.

The first occasion was on the evening of Easter Sunday itself. We read in John’s gospel: “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained (Jn 20: 22-23)." With the sending of the Holy Spirit, the apostles were given the power to forgive sins.

The second occasion reported happened during the Jewish feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was given in a dramatic way. First, there was a mighty wind coming from the sky and filling the house. Then there appeared tongues of fire that rested on each of those present. Clothed with the Holy Spirit the apostles were transformed into men of great courage. They went out of hiding. Then they were given the power to preach and to do so in different languages so that Jews from different parts of the world who were in Jerusalem on pilgrimage could understand them.

The Holy Spirit continues to be present today to be our companion. In fact, Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always” (Jn 14:16).

Our confirmation is our personal Pentecost. It means that just as the apostles received the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, in the same way we also receive the Holy Spirit on our confirmation day. And just as the Holy Spirit gave the apostles the power to witness to Jesus Christ so also the Holy Spirit gives to us the same power.

Our witnessing to Jesus may take different forms. It may be through the spoken word or through the written word. It may be through good example.

There is a short prayer to the Holy Spirit that expresses another power of the Holy Spirit: “Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.” The charismatic renewal is a dramatic expression of the power of the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth.

This does not mean that renewal happens only within the charismatic renewal. The Holy Spirit can touch the heart of anyone and if that person responds positively to the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit can transform that person. Some would call this transformation his second conversion.

Have you ever experienced wanting to pray but not succeeding? We may not know what to say. Or we might have started to pray but end up thinking of other things because of distractions. Or we don’t feel like praying at all. The Holy Spirit can come to our rescue. St. Paul in his letter to the Romans writes: “In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26). The Holy Spirit can give us the ability to pray.

ASCENSION (B)

Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.

Mk 16:15-20

One teacher shared with me how she became a teacher. One day when she and her cousins were young, they were called to the house of their aunt. Their aunt had them stand in a file in front of her. Then she pointed to her and her sister and said, “You will become teachers.” Then she pointed to the next cousin and said, “You will become a nurse.” And to the third, she said, “You will become a pharmacist.” She was not prophesying their future. She was already deciding their future by telling them what courses to take in college. She felt she had the right to decide their future because she was the one who was going to pay for their college education.

When Jesus called his disciples, he had already their future in mind. He was already deciding what they were going to do. He was going to send them out into the whole world to proclaim the gospel to every creature. This was their mission. This was their vocation.

Don Bosco said that it was very important for us to discover our mission in life. He said among other things that our happiness probably depended on it. The reason for this is that when we carry out our mission in life, we will experience a sense of self-fulfilment. “I did what I was supposed to do in life.” St. John the Baptist suffered martyrdom, but I suppose he died feeling self-fulfilled because he was able to carry out his mission. He did what was meant to do in life. He pre-pared the way of the Lord.

Carrying out our mission in life is not just about feeling fulfilled and happy. When we fulfil our mission in life, we are leaving a legacy behind. This legacy means that we have made a difference in this world. We did some good and this good remains even after we die.

Ninoy Aquino stood up against the Marcos dictatorship. Sentenced to die by a military court, he refused to ask Marcos for clemency, saying “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” Beset by heart troubles, he was allowed to go to the United States for surgery. After he got well, he taught at Harvard and continued to give speeches assailing what he called the conjugal dictatorship of Imelda and Marcos. But what he enjoyed most was being with his family. Imprisonment had separated him from Cory and his children. He could just have stayed in the US.

But one day he decided to return to the Philippines, hoping that he can persuade Marcos give up power and to restore democracy. Warned not to return because of threats of assassination, he declared, “The Filipino is worth dying for.” He returned and he paid for it with his life. He was shot at the tarmac of the International Airport that bears his name today.

Ninoy Aquino’s has been dead for 26 years already. But his legacy remains - freedom and democracy for the Filipino people.

Not everyone can leave the kind of legacy that Ninoy Aquino has left behind. If we can not make a difference in the life of millions of people, we can at least make a difference in the life of some of them.

Consider what this parish priest did for six altar boys. They come from a far-flung town in Bicol. These boys have never been outside of Bicol. One day he had to go to Manila. As a reward, he brought these six altar boys with him. But he really had something else in mind. He wanted the boys to see that there was world out there that was bigger than their small town in Bicol. He wanted the boys to see for themselves possibilities for their future. By making them see these things, he planted a seed in their hearts. That seed grew and bore fruit. All of them without exception became professionals. This parish priest made a difference in the life of at least these six altar boys.

If I believe that everyone has a mission in life, if I believe that everyone is meant to make a difference in this world, then I have to believe that no one is useless. I have to believe that no one is good for nothing. And that includes me.

Henry Cardinal Newman wrote: "God has created me, to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. He has not created me for nothing. Therefore, I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am. I cannot be thrown away."

God has not created me for nothing. He has created me for something. He has created me to make a difference in this world. I only have to discover it. I only have to fulfill it. But the questions remain. Have I already discovered it? And more importantly, am I already fulfilling it?

6th SUNDAY OF EASTER (B)

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Jn 15:9-17

This Sunday I am going to talk about love.

The NT uses two Greek words for “love”: agape and phileos. Agape is unconditional love, while phileos is love between friends. When Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?", Jesus uses “agape”. When Simon Peter answers: “"Yes, Lord; you know that I love you", he uses “phileos”.

Some have interpreted this to mean that Jesus was asking Peter for unconditional love. But after having denied him three times, Peter was not so sure of him-self and so could only offer Jesus the love of friendship. But Jesus accepted Peter’s love all the same.

There are two other Greek words for love which are not used in the NT. They are: eros and storge. Eros is physical love while storge may be used for the love of the parent for the child.

In 1 Cor 13 we find what they call the “Hymn to Love”. It does not define love but enumerates how love is expressed. “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Love is patient. Two siblings were quarreling. The mother intervened. She told the younger son to respect his kuya. But she also told the elder son to be patient with his younger brother. What was she in fact telling her eldest? To love his younger brother so much as to be able to bear with him.

When I was teaching Religion to 4th year high school students, we studied the definition of love. It was defined as “the power in us that moves us to go out of ourselves, to give of ourselves for the good of the one loved.”

Love as power means that it gives us the capability of doing something for the one we love, even giving up one’s life.

Jesus said: “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” And he did. That is why the cross is so important for us Christians. It continually reminds us that God loves us.

I read a news item that a mother suffering breast cancer refused chemotherapy because she was pregnant. She chose to put her own life in jeopardy so that her unborn child may live. Love enables us to do heroic things for the sake of the one we love.

Love can be better understood and appreciated using pictures rather than definitions.

The picture of two newly-married couple speaks about love. But the picture of an old couple celebrating their golden wedding anniversary speaks better about what love really is. Love is always being there for the beloved “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”.


I read the story of twins. They were in the hospital nursery. The health of one of them was failing. The head nurse was very concerned. Although it was against normal procedure, she put the weak one in the same bassinet with her twin sister. It was then that the condition of the weak one started to improve. But what was touching was the photo taken of the twins. The arm of the stronger sister was around the shoulder of the weaker one. Does this not speak about the love among brothers and sisters?

In the museum called The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia there is a monumental painting of Rembrandt. It is called the Return of the Prodigal Son. The son leans on his father’s breast while both arms of father enfold the son in a gesture of acceptance and welcome. The prodigal son experiences his father’s love when his father shows him compassion and grants him his forgiveness. When Je-sus told the Parable of the Prodigal Son, all he wanted to say was that God’s love is compassionate and forgiving. And what the Prodigal Son experienced, we too can experience in the confession.

Love can also be better understood and appreciated using stories.

One man kept this particular story in his heart. When they were young, their parents had difficulty in making ends meet. They did not have enough to eat. He never complained but he did feel angry towards his parents for having not enough to eat. Then one day something happened that made him ashamed of himself.

His mother served their meal. She did not eat with them. Since there was not enough food, she tried to divide the food equally. After supper she would stay in the kitchen while the children did their homework. But that particular evening, he went to the kitchen for a glass of water. To his surprise and shame, he saw his mother wiping the inside of the cooking pan with bread and eating it.

Their mother contented herself with the sauce that was left so that they, the children, would have more to eat.

No sacrifice is too great for the sake of the one you love.

Someone observed that real love is a verb. A verb is defined as an action word. What he meant to say was that real love is not just something that you say but above all something that you do. Unless love passes from word to action, that love is probably a fake.

How is our love lately? Is it fake or real? Is it just a word or has it become an action?