LOVE, if it truly is love, cannot help but appear to us, with our very
limited way of knowing things, as a kind of madness. How can it not be
so when love by its very nature always goes beyond what we think
should be the limit of things?
Love always gives itself without measure. That’s its essence. It
leaves measure and calculation behind. It just gives and gives
non-stop, not only 24/7 but from all eternity and through all eternity
as well.
Consider the following. God created the universe without any necessity
on his part. He just did it out of pure goodness, wishing to share
what he has with other beings. This is the very essence of
gratuitousness, the core of love.
Then he created us in his image and likeness, and therefore running
the risk of being freely rejected by us, his creatures, which was what
took place and continues to take place up to now.
But in spite of that, God continues to love us, willing to undertake a
very complicated plan of salvation, sending his own Son to us, since
it is only God, not us even in our best efforts, who can save us.
For this, the Son had to become man, assuming not only human nature,
but also the consequences of man’s sin and woundedness without ever
committing any trace of sin. Then he died to our sin, his death
delivering death to our sins. With his resurrection, we are given a
way to conquer our own sins as long as we also die with him.
That death on the cross is the supreme act of love of God for us.
“Greater love than this no man has, that a man lays down his life for
his friends.” (Jn 15,13) That death is nothing other than the
expression of pure love that shows its best in mercy, a mercy that
goes all the way and given as often as necessary.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became man, is the perfect and only
mediator between God and us, since he is precisely both God and man,
the meeting point between divinity and humanity and the very
reconciliation between the two.
With Christ, God does not only give us some gifts, very precious as
they are—our intelligence and free will, our talents and other
endowments—but also has given us his own self.
To save us and recover our original dignity as children of God, Christ
preached about God, his Father, and about ourselves, thus showing us
the truth that redeems us, the truth the can bring us to our ultimate
destination. He extricates us from merely worldly knowledge that while
helpful can keep us from God.
While Christ lived in history, in the past, he continues to be with us
in his Church, in his word contained in the gospel and the doctrine of
our faith, in the sacraments, especially the sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist. He makes himself a contemporary of everyone.
He wants to be with us in the most intimate and constant way. “Behold,
I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world.” (Mt
28,20) He does not leave us only with a symbol or a memento of
himself. He, who is in heaven, also is truly and substantially also on
earth with us.
These and more are clear proofs of the extreme kind of love God has
for us, a love that we can consider, given our human limitations, as
divine madness.
But let’s also realize more deeply that since we are image and
likeness of God, since we are children of his by adoption, we ought to
reflect and live this divine madness ourselves.
It’s a goal that obviously is overwhelming. It’s truly over the top.
But with God’s grace, with our faith and trust in him and with our
best effort even if it can still be made better always, we can do it
(possumus!). It’s God’s will which cannot be frustrated no matter what
obstacles it meets. We just have to try our best to correspond to it.
In short, we too are called to this madness of love, to this total and
unending self-giving that actually satisfies our deepest longing and
extricates us from the limitations and woundedness of our human
condition here on earth.
We need to familiarize ourselves with this goal, because many of us
still do not know, much less, appreciate and effectively pursue this
goal. We need to educate ourselves in this most sublime truth about
ourselves.
limited way of knowing things, as a kind of madness. How can it not be
so when love by its very nature always goes beyond what we think
should be the limit of things?
Love always gives itself without measure. That’s its essence. It
leaves measure and calculation behind. It just gives and gives
non-stop, not only 24/7 but from all eternity and through all eternity
as well.
Consider the following. God created the universe without any necessity
on his part. He just did it out of pure goodness, wishing to share
what he has with other beings. This is the very essence of
gratuitousness, the core of love.
Then he created us in his image and likeness, and therefore running
the risk of being freely rejected by us, his creatures, which was what
took place and continues to take place up to now.
But in spite of that, God continues to love us, willing to undertake a
very complicated plan of salvation, sending his own Son to us, since
it is only God, not us even in our best efforts, who can save us.
For this, the Son had to become man, assuming not only human nature,
but also the consequences of man’s sin and woundedness without ever
committing any trace of sin. Then he died to our sin, his death
delivering death to our sins. With his resurrection, we are given a
way to conquer our own sins as long as we also die with him.
That death on the cross is the supreme act of love of God for us.
“Greater love than this no man has, that a man lays down his life for
his friends.” (Jn 15,13) That death is nothing other than the
expression of pure love that shows its best in mercy, a mercy that
goes all the way and given as often as necessary.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became man, is the perfect and only
mediator between God and us, since he is precisely both God and man,
the meeting point between divinity and humanity and the very
reconciliation between the two.
With Christ, God does not only give us some gifts, very precious as
they are—our intelligence and free will, our talents and other
endowments—but also has given us his own self.
To save us and recover our original dignity as children of God, Christ
preached about God, his Father, and about ourselves, thus showing us
the truth that redeems us, the truth the can bring us to our ultimate
destination. He extricates us from merely worldly knowledge that while
helpful can keep us from God.
While Christ lived in history, in the past, he continues to be with us
in his Church, in his word contained in the gospel and the doctrine of
our faith, in the sacraments, especially the sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist. He makes himself a contemporary of everyone.
He wants to be with us in the most intimate and constant way. “Behold,
I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world.” (Mt
28,20) He does not leave us only with a symbol or a memento of
himself. He, who is in heaven, also is truly and substantially also on
earth with us.
These and more are clear proofs of the extreme kind of love God has
for us, a love that we can consider, given our human limitations, as
divine madness.
But let’s also realize more deeply that since we are image and
likeness of God, since we are children of his by adoption, we ought to
reflect and live this divine madness ourselves.
It’s a goal that obviously is overwhelming. It’s truly over the top.
But with God’s grace, with our faith and trust in him and with our
best effort even if it can still be made better always, we can do it
(possumus!). It’s God’s will which cannot be frustrated no matter what
obstacles it meets. We just have to try our best to correspond to it.
In short, we too are called to this madness of love, to this total and
unending self-giving that actually satisfies our deepest longing and
extricates us from the limitations and woundedness of our human
condition here on earth.
We need to familiarize ourselves with this goal, because many of us
still do not know, much less, appreciate and effectively pursue this
goal. We need to educate ourselves in this most sublime truth about
ourselves.
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