FIRST LOVE
“Accept death.” —2 Maccabees 7:29 Loving God is more important than living (see Ps 63:4). Like the seven brothers in today’s first reading for Mass, hundreds of thousands of believers have laid down their lives for love of God. Loving God takes priority over any suffering. The faithful mother in today’s first reading endured the extreme suffering of personally seeing her seven sons maimed and martyred. Loving God takes priority over family (Lk 14:26), money (see Mt 6:24), lifestyle, and self (Lk 14:26). If you are rejected, penniless, homeless, and despised as a failure, your life is nevertheless beautiful if...