the Lord, and we’re reminded of that most heart-warming
truth of our
faith that God became man in the purest womb of Mary to
reach us, to
be with us, to save us.
In so doing,
God assumed not only our nature but also our
wounded condition, including death, without committing
sin, if only to
identify himself completely with each one of us.
His love was,
is, such that he goes all the way, even to
assuming all our sinfulness to bring us back to God, from
whom we
come, to whom we belong and in whose image and likeness
we have been
created.
His love is not
just the “eros” type—loving someone with
the view of getting something from that someone. Nor is
it simply
“filia”—a form of loving expressed in sharing things. It
is
“agape”—the highest form of love where one loves
irrespective of
getting something or not, or even rejected and
contradicted.
God can never
forget us, a truth that was already
articulated well in the Book of Isaiah: “Can a woman
forget her
sucking child, that she would have no compassion on the
son of her
womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
(49,15)
We have to
pound this truth of our faith constantly into
our head and heart, so we can feel at home with it. Our
problem is
that we often take God’s love for granted and thus
trivialize the
dignity that we have, and suffer the consequences that
actually can
and should be avoided. We can either abuse this love or
doubt it.
We may feel
awkward about this truth, since we seldom, if
ever, expect much less experience a love such as this. We
often
consider such love as madness, or impossible to take
place, etc. But
this is the love God is offering us and is asking us also
to have.
This tremendous
love of God to us through Christ was once
described vividly by St. Paul. Let’s listen to him
slowly:
“While we were
still weak, at the right time Christ died
for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous
man—though
perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God
shows his
love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us.”
(Rom 5,6-8)
This
awkwardness toward the incredible love God has for us
is very understandable, but we have to fight it off. The
truth is that
with God’s incarnation in Christ, there’s nothing in our
life that is
not covered by his redemptive work.
Whatever our
situation is, whether approved or disapproved
by him, God will always love us and will do everything to
bring us
back to him. He precisely is willing to die for us.
All we have to
do is to cooperate with him as much as we
can. This is also because no matter how much God loves us
to madness,
he cannot impose that love on us. He will always respect
our freedom,
even if we choose to misuse it.
It’s always
worthwhile to pause and reflect on this
crucial truth of our faith, because it is also something
that is
expected of us. Our love for one another, as Christ
commanded us in
his new commandment, should reflect this very love God
has for us.
We need to
understand one another, willing to go all the
way to bear the burden of the others. St. Paul precisely
told us about
that: “Bear one another’s burdens, and you shall fulfil
the law of
Christ.” (Gal 6,2)
This will
obviously require a lot of adjustments on each
one of us, since our tendency is to think and care only
for our own
interests. And if we happen to be interested in the
concerns of the
others, it is usually pursued with some self-interest in
mind, with
some ulterior motive involved.
We have to
learn to forget ourselves and immerse ourselves
completely and gratuitously in the affairs of the others,
understanding them no matter how different they are from
us or how
wrong we feel they are about certain matters. We have to
be friendly
to everyone, and quick to forgive and to reconcile once
some conflicts
occur.
Yes, we can and
should proclaim this truth in season and
out of season, but without imposing it. If we suffer
because of that
attitude, so be it. Such suffering will be a
participation of the
redemptive suffering and death of Christ on the cross.
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