5th Sunday of Easter: Loving in Deed and Truth (a.k.a. Love is not a Feeling!)

Today's second reading from the John's first letter opens like this: "Children, let us love not in word and speech but in deed and truth." St. John is telling us not so much that we shouldn't express love with our words, but that, for our love to be authentic, it must be backed up by deeds. This is hugely important in a culture where to "love" someone is thought to mean to have warm feelings for them. It follows then that if someone makes me feel bad there cannot be love there. What John puts into focus for us is that our love is proven when we do for each other what is best for each other (through actions), which is consistent with Aquinas's definition of love: "Willing (choosing) the good for the other".