Christ on the Cross, Eugène Delacroix, c. 1835

Take a look at these excerpts from once popular song lyrics:

When I’m Sixty-four
When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine…
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four[1]

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
I’d like to know that your love
Is a love I can be sure of
So tell me now and I won’t ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow[2]

Hungry Heart
Everybody needs a place to rest
Everybody wants to have a home
Don’t make no difference what nobody says
Ain’t nobody like to be alone…
Everybody’s got a hungry heart[3]

Each of these secular songs echoes a truth inscribed in every human heart. We are made for everlasting love! St. John Paul II explains why:

God is love (1 Jn 4:8) and in Himself He lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in His own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. Familiaris Consortio, 11 (emphasis added)

God is love and He created us out of love for everlasting friendship with Him. Being created in His image, man and women are given the vocation to love as God loves. But we are wounded and broken people and it is impossible to love as God loves. God sent His Son Jesus into the world to die on the cross to save us from sin and death. He redeemed our brokenness and sent us the Holy Spirit and grace to be able to love as He does.

True love seeks the good of the other; it is not self-seeking. St. Paul says: “Love does not insist on its own way” (1 Cor 13:5). We need to look no further than Jesus giving His life on the cross to see true love in action. The opposite of love is use. It seeks personal pleasure at the expense of others. People are things to be used for personal satisfaction. True love builds up while use tears down.

Christ’s love for His bride, the Church is present to us in the Sacraments. When we partake in the Sacraments, we receive grace so that we are able to be more like Jesus. Christ’s love is most visible in the love of husband and wife in the Sacrament of Marriage. When we live out the vow “until death do us part,” marriage begins to satisfy our hungry hearts. This is your task as husband and wife: to be Christ’s love to each other, to your children and to the world. There is no greater vocation in life than this.

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[1] When I’m Sixty-four, internet: https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/the-beatles/when-im-64 (accessed January 26, 2020).

[2] Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, internet: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/caroleking/willyoulovemetomorrow.html (accessed January 26, 2020).

[3] Hungry Heart, internet: https://genius.com/Bruce-springsteen-hungry-heart-lyrics (accessed January 26, 2020).