Love is a very popular word this time of the year. With Valentine’s Day on Monday, we are a bit sweeter and gooier, like your favorite chocolate treat, than normal. But what happens after the holiday? Not only do we feel guilty about eating a chocolate heart, but we forget what love really means. That is why it is important to focus on unconditional love. Unconditional love helps you see the love within and without any condition. Here is how we found our unconditional love for the other 364 days of the year.

Look for an Example

Go through pictures with your family sometime. When a baby picture comes up, look at the way people admire it. They make comments like, “do you remember being that small” or, “you had a pair of lungs on you”. And then they may make a sigh with a smile. That right there is unconditional love. Despite the loss of sleep and personal sacrifices, they would do it all over again in a heartbeat because it taught them unconditional love once they became parents. This is perhaps the best example of unconditional love.

It’s Free Love

Unconditional love is love that you do not have to earn, it is free love. We do not mean free, as in there is no price, we mean free as in there are no conditions or stipulations behind it. You love because you want to love. It’s our favorite sports teams or a player that can do no wrong, it’s your first pet, it’s a family member, and it’s much more. Can you think of anything that you love just because you want to?

God’s Love for Us

We have been taught during Mass and Religious Education that God and Jesus love us no matter what. He knows that deep down we are all good people and therefore loves us for trying each and every day.  You can see this while reading different passages in the Bible and how God and Jesus treat others.

When in Mass this Sunday, listen to the gospel and scriptures. Understand the unconditional love that is written in the different verses of psalms, see how families are connecting with one another while giving the sign of peace, and how the volunteers are giving their time to show their unconditional love to their parish.

As you can see, unconditional love is all around us. We feel it during Mass, when we are with our families, and we give it out ourselves to those around us. Perhaps Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best when he stated, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality”. Let’s continue his legacy and celebrate unconditional love today and every day.