The Love Store
Today, as I was driving to Mass, I passed one of the countless salacious billboards that dot the freeways and intersections of Las Vegas. This one was more blatant than most. An attractive woman occupied the left side of the sign, while the words, "The Love Store—The Name Says It All!" stretched boldly across the right.
As I continued driving, I found myself thinking about that slogan.
The name says it all.
In a way, it does.
We often judge a society by its wealth, its literacy, or the health of its people. Yet another measure is what that society chooses to celebrate publicly. The advertisements lining its roads reveal what it believes is worth selling, what it believes is worth buying, and ultimately, what it believes is worth loving.
The greatest problem with the Love Store is not merely the obvious sins it promotes—lust, sexual immorality, or scandal—grave though those are. The deeper tragedy is that it presents love itself as something to be purchased, consumed, and discarded. It reflects a culture that has exchanged self-giving, sacrificial love for transactional affection, where relationships are measured by what they can provide rather than by what they are willing to give.
Christianity proclaims something almost incomprehensible to the modern world. Love cannot be bought because love is not a product. It is a gift. More than that, love is a Person. As St. John writes, "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Love is not merely an emotion to be chased or a feeling to be indulged. Love took on flesh in Jesus Christ.
The world builds stores that promise to satisfy desire. Christ built an altar where love could be offered. One asks, "What will you pay?" The other asks, "What will you give?" Jesus Himself declared, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). The Cross forever redefines love, not as taking from another, but as giving oneself away for another.
When asked to summarize the entire Law, Jesus did not speak of romance, attraction, or pleasure. He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind... You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37–39). In just two commandments, He reordered every human relationship. Love is no longer measured by how much we receive, but by how faithfully we give.
Perhaps Christians should have a Love Store after all—but not the kind advertised along our highways. Ours would not be a place where love is bought, sold, or consumed. It would be a place where love is stored. Christ did not tell us to seek out love as though it were another commodity to be acquired. He commanded us to fill our hearts with it.
Ironically, Christ Himself speaks of storing things. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth... but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19–21). Every act of charity, every sacrifice made in secret, every prayer whispered in faith becomes another treasure laid up before God. We store up love for God through prayer, worship, and faithful obedience. We store up love for our neighbor through mercy, forgiveness, patience, and charity.
Unlike earthly treasures that diminish the more they are spent, love grows stronger the more it is given away. Every worldly store grows emptier as its shelves are emptied. God's storehouse only becomes richer as His people pour themselves out in service to others. As St. Paul reminds us, "Owe no one anything, except to love one another" (Romans 13:8). Love is the one debt that is never fully repaid because every act of love reflects the infinite love first shown to us by Christ.
In the end, perhaps the billboard's slogan is true after all.
The name really does say it all.
