The natural human mystery of intimate love can shine light on virtually every aspect of Catholic spiritual tradition.
Gordon J. Hilsman in Intimate Spirituality

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	Scripture Readings May 3, 2009		Weekly Reflection May 3, 2009
	Acts 4:8-12 The religious leadership here misses the point that healing a cripple is an act of loving care, because they narrowly see only political realities. Self protective and legalistic to the core, they ignore the glories of human love and supernatural healing. Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, answered them, "Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is 'the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.' There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved." 1 Jn 3:1-2 The love of God is always pure gift that is given without our deserving it, just as "falling in love" comes out of nowhere, unable to be earned See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed ^{we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.} Jn 10: 11-18 The difference between a shepherd who loves the sheep and one who merely tends them for pay is the metaphor here for all loveless relationships, in ministry, in romance and relationship with God. I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep ^{that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.}^{This command I have received from my Father."}		Loving Fortitude A hired shepherd isn't expected to care enough about the sheep to give his life for them. That generally isn't in his contract. He's paid minimally, works long, boring hours, endures hardships, owns no sheep, and commits himself to guide and protect the herd "within reasonable limits". He's not likely to be a fool with his life over somebody else's animals. Yet some shepherds will risk "life and limb" to defend the utter vulnerability of the sheep who have powers neither to defend nor attack. The difference between the sheep herders who invest their safety for the sheep and those who simply run away as expected, is a heroic measure of what catholic tradition would call "loving fortitude". Derived from the Latin fors meaning strong, and attitudine meaning "a fit posture", the term fortitude means the capacity to garner strength when it is needed, muster courage against impending danger, and stand firmly for what one deeply values. Without love however, what looks like fortitude will be proven to be senseless stubbornness, political posturing, or shallow bravado. Tom Fox recently posed the question in America magazine about why there is currently so little protest about injustice and standing up for Catholic social teaching. Where is the perspective of social justice spoken with vigor in the face of political decisions and directions that narrowly miss the human mission of eventual global unity? How are the social values of the dignity of all humans, equality of people, the right to "enough" material resources, and the enormous worth of a single human being hiding and waiting for leaders or ordinary people to promote them, protest about them, and manifest the underlying outrage that they are being systematically ignored? What is missing in many of us who are sinking into self-indulgence is the fortitude we will one day need to bolster our will against what encroaches to erode our values, our lifestyle and our children. There will be no substitute for loving fortitude. Intimate love continues to be a major source of the growing of loving fortitude. A teenage boy finds new courage with even the suggestion that his girlfriend is threatened. An old man is likely to stand against young thugs who intimidate the love of his life. A loving woman will endure whatever necessary to be with her man. When you love somebody, a piece of that emotional upheaval that changes your life is a newfound combination of courage, savvy, and stubborn strength called fortitude. There is something about facing the mystery of intimate loving that injects incredible energy into growing up, clarifying your own values, investing vigorously in your primary relationships and pursuing your own best life. The natural impetus to love somebody bodily and soulfully provides some of the greatest courage people ever find. The difference between falling in love on the one hand, and casual liaisons, glitzy weddings, recreational sex, and party "hooking up" on the other, is simply love. Like the shepherd who runs away at the sight of danger, sexual partners who don’t actually love one another, married or not, are unlikely to find the fortitude to successfully meet the relational challenges that inevitably accost all romantic relationships. Only love, not weddings, makes relationships possible. Weddings may help, but a love that is beyond our power to command, a reflection of the Spirit of God Herself, that perpetually elusive force that relentlessly pushes us into intimate connectedness, that love alone makes enduring partnerships possible. It is not easy to distinguish other relationships from actual intimate love. But there are many signs. One of them is the presence of loving fortitude when hardship or crisis arrives. A girl who abandons her lover in gossipy conversation with "the girls" has not found that loving fortitude any more than the boy who trash talks his girlfriend with the boys in the locker room. There is no easy way of clearly discerning love from fascination, good sex, exploitation, or seduction. But one clue is the presence or absence of loving fortitude.