Mother Maria Skobtsova, in her “Essential Writings,” says there is not, and there cannot be any following in the steps of Christ without taking upon ourselves a certain share, small as it may be, of participation in the sacrificial deed of love. Gail Goleas writes in “Living Faith” that loving one another can be messy. Consider the clerk, briefcase in hand, headed toward the train station after work. The sidewalk was jammed with people going in the same direction, except for a homeless man asking for change. The clerk thought, “No problem.” He opened his wallet and discovered he only had a twenty-dollar bill. It was more than he wanted to give, but how could he say no? Overjoyed at what seemed like a windfall, the homeless man threw his arms around the clerk and lifted him off his feet. That caught the attention of a policeman, who called the clerk over to his squad car and asked, “Did you just give that guy money?” “Yes,” was his reply, and the policeman shook his head and laughed. As the clerk continued walking, a pigeon flew overhead and left a wet stain on his jacket. On the train ride home, he thanked God for the gift of humor and decided he would have dodged the pigeon if he had to do it all over again. Mother Maria closes by reminding us that one cannot love sacrificially in one’s own name, but only in the name of Christ, in the name of the image of God that is revealed to us.