The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
I’ve been pondering the concept of selflessness recently, and thinking about whether or not true selflessness is possible. I have struggled with thinking that any act – no matter how kind or altruistic – will in some way benefit the one doing it. That benefit ranges from the tax breaks from donating to charity, to the good feelings received from helping someone who needs it. However, while praying the Stations of the Cross I encountered pure selflessness in a way that gave me surety of its existence.
The One Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is fully complete and satisfied in Himself and has absolutely no need for you or me. There is nothing that any of us here can do that could improve upon God’s own glory, love, radiance, or perfection. He brought us into existence for no other reason than to pour His infinite love into us – but even this isn't the most selfless part.
As humans, our imperfect response to God's perfect love is summarized in Peter’s response to the events of Holy Week: Overly confident piety at the Last Supper, well-intentioned but short-sighted aggression in the Garden, and repeated denial of even knowing Christ. The entire time that the Lamb of God was led to the slaughter He knew this is how Peter – the rock of His Church – was reacting to the situation unfolding around him. He also knew that neither Peter nor any other human could give Him anything in return for the sacrifice He was making. Yet He did not stop. He did not look back. He did not doubt. He did not even for a moment think to lessen the bite of the scourges or the weight of the cross or the humiliation of His nakedness.
His inexhaustible love for you and I is too perfect, generous, and truly selfless for that.
Jesus Christ crucified, teach me to love selflessly. Amen.