{"id":153051,"date":"2018-12-21T10:30:47","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T15:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-as-a-man-should-i-be-in-love-with-jesus\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T14:56:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T18:56:10","slug":"ask-a-priest-as-a-man-should-i-be-in-love-with-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-as-a-man-should-i-be-in-love-with-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ask a Priest: As a Man, Should I ‘Be in Love’ With Jesus?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Q: I am working through some faith troubles and am a bit confused on a topic. Are we supposed to love Jesus or be in love<\/em> with Jesus? I became a new man when I accepted Jesus into my soul, as he made me whole. But I am very confused about whether I can truly love him back for this, without truly being in love with Jesus. I know it sounds romantic, but I can’t help have this question. \u2013 T.A.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0I wouldn’t focus too much on the distinction here. As men we relate to Christ as men. Our sense of affinity with Our Lord might differ somewhat from how women love him. So it might not sound natural for us as men to “be in love” with Jesus.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say that love isn’t primarily an emotion. Love is an act of the will. To love Jesus means to make him the center of our life, to follow his commandments, to make him the model of all we do.<\/p>\n

It isn’t a romantic kind of thing, as we generally understand the term. And yet, our love for Christ can and should be deeper than any romance.<\/p>\n

By this I don’t mean to disparage marriage. As beautiful as marriage can be, it can bring only a relative and temporal happiness. It doesn’t last eternally. Recall Jesus’ word about the seven brothers and the lone wife. “At the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30).<\/p>\n

Another way to think of the richness of manly love might be this.<\/p>\n

Imagine a soldier in wartime who, without hesitation, jumps on a live grenade in order to save his buddies. Six months earlier, in civilian life, that same soldier might have refused to do little favors for his wife, such as taking out the garbage (out of laziness, let’s say).<\/p>\n

At what moment does the soldier show the greater love? Surely at the moment when he lays down his life for his buddies. Would we say he loved his buddies? Probably. Would we say he was “in love” with his buddies? Maybe not.<\/p>\n

My guess is that those grateful buddies wouldn’t worry the difference in wording. Instead, they would always remember a man who laid down his life for his friends: the ultimate show of love.<\/p>\n

So again, real love deals with the will, not the emotions. That is the kind of love Christ wants from all of us. So don\u2019t worry about “being in love” with Jesus. Just love him as best you can.<\/p>\n

Keep learning more with Ask a Priest<\/a><\/h3>\n

Got a question? Need an answer?<\/h3>\n

Today\u2019s secular world throws curve balls at us all the time. AskACatholicPriest is a Q&A feature that anyone can use. Just type in your question or send an email to AskAPriest@rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com<\/a> and you will get a personal response back from one of our priests at RCSpirituality. You can ask about anything \u2013 liturgy, prayer, moral questions, current events\u2026 Our goal is simply to provide a trustworthy forum for dependable Catholic guidance and information. So go ahead and ask your question\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153051"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=153051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}