Love is our true destiny, says Thomas Merton, in his writings. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone but always in the context of our relationships with others.

St. Augustine after looking for love in a self-centred life of pleasure, says this: "You have made us for yourself, Lord and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

Why has God made us this way? It's a guarantee that we will never be satisfied with anything less than the infinite and the eternal love of God for us, in us!

Many of us are in danger of dying from malnutrition because we do not love...we are dying from lack of love in a world where most everyone wants to love - and we are unable to pour our love on people who are starving for it. At the end of our life we will be judged on love, and only on love; says St. John of the Cross.

In today's Gospel text, Jesus gives us the blueprint for our happiness: love...i.e. to grow from a self-centered egoistic love for self ( a narcissistic form of love) towards an on-going other-centered love.

We look for Christ everywhere except in the place where the Incarnation takes place: our flesh. " ...and the Word was made flesh."

Love happens in ordinary places: in kitchens, at tables, in bed-rooms, in work-places, in families, in the flesh. God has crawled into our very ordinary lives and invites us to meet him in our brothers and sisters.