"Parisian Love Lock" by thezartorialist.com on flickr

Dr. Bruce Epperly, on his Living a Holy Adventure blog, offers us another beautiful way of talking about how love requires sacrifice, and how real love takes us beyond ourselves; sacrifice doesn't make us less, but rather makes us more:

John’s Gospel continues the spirit of vines and branches from last week’s readings. We grow in energy and creativity through our commitments to love one another.

Love opens the floodgates of divine energy to flow from us to others. Laying down our lives for each other, then, is not a sacrifice but an expansion and growing of our authentic selfhood. Our willingness to go beyond self-interest opens us to the larger selfhood of Christ, whose love identifies with all creation.

This is the foundation of peace, according to the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, in which our self-concern is identified with the well-being of larger and larger circles of reality. Delivered from the prison of the small self, we encounter and bring forth the divine in every situation.

from the post, "The Adventurous Lectionary: Reflections for May 13, 2012")