By Fr. Paul D. Scalia, The Catholic Thing - (Jesus) not only loved perfectly in this world but is Himself Love Incarnate. Unless, then, His perfect love is the standard, our love risks becoming mere sentimentality – silly at best, brutal at worst. Unhinged from Truth, our loves tend towards the tenderness that causes so much wreckage in our families and society. And that, in Flannery O’Connor’s famous words, “leads to the gas chamber.”