August 23 The Heart of St. Paul
What is it that motivates our actions? Is it the potential for recognition, or wealth? It is from a sense of generosity, guilt or fear? All of these things can serve as an impetus to do something good. St. Paul states that in his relationship with Christ and others, the motivating force for him is love. He writes to the Corinthians in his Second Letter: “For the love of Christ impels us becuase we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2Cor 5:14-15)
Christ’s motivation, doing all for the love of the Father is taken over by Paul who does all for the love of Christ. From his knowledge of the Lord, Paul clearly sees that people make no progress in real happiness by living only for themselves. Something like living for oneself alone can end only in emptiness and pain. The true reason for spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that happiness comes from sharing the reason for our happiness with others. That kind of happiness is gained by focusing more on others than on ourselves.
Often times we are moved acts of kindness or charity by guilt or fear, or even the hope of someone being grateful to us, but none of these give us a lasting reward. The only way we can receive a lasting reward is by doing acts of kindness out of our love of God and neighbor, expecting nothing in return. Our happiness comes from sharing our gift. We need to do nothing else. What greater joy can we experience than by telling someone that the love of Jesus Christ for us even unto death has opened the possiblity of goodness, peace and a new life of meaning? May the Lord give us the heart of St. Paul, so that our sole motivating reason fror our every action is the love of Christ, and not from what we may receive.
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