WHY does God love us so much? It
makes us to wonder why.
Just consider these points which I am sure are not complete. In fact,
they are still very far from complete, even if we think they are
already quite exhaustive and overwhelming.
First, He created us when there was no need for him to do
so. More than that, He created us in his very own image and likeness,
taking the risk that we can replace him ourselves.
And when finally we, in Adam and Eve, fell to that
temptation of replacing God, he continues to love by sending his own
son to redeem us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” (Jn 3,16)
And the son assumed all our sins by dying on the cross and
resurrecting. There can be no greater love than this. God has done
this because the Son, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is the
perfect image of God himself. And since we are the image and likeness
of God, the Son has to repair that divine image of ours that has been
deformed by our sin.
God in Christ continues to go through the process of
redeeming us by dying and resurrecting all throughout time by sending
the Holy Spirit, founding the Church and the instituting the
sacraments, especially that of the Holy Eucharist. St. Josemaria
Escriva has described the Holy Eucharist as God’s madness of love for
us.
And the list goes on and on. It will never end. Again, why
does God love us so much? We can only repeat some words of the Psalms:
“What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you
care for him?” (8,4)
We can only wager some possible answers. One of them could
be that it is precisely because we have been created in his image and
likeness that God cannot leave us alone. In a way, we can say that he
sees himself in us, no matter how much we deform that divine image in
us.
In this regard, God is like the mother mentioned in the
Book of Isaiah. “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no
compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will
not forget you.” (49,15)
Besides, even in the natural plane, there is hardly any
mother who will not clean her child no matter how dirty the child is.
It’s instinctive of her to do whatever is needed to clean the child or
to get him out of any predicament.
That, at the very least, is how God sees and treats us. He
of course does a lot more. To top it all, we should not forget that no
matter how gifted and accomplished we may be in our human affairs, all
of us are always more helpless and clueless before God than we can be
before our respective parents.
In fact, we can outsmart our parents. But with God, never.
We will always be like little children to him, growing more dependent
on him. Even if we appear to have gained more stature in our earthly
condition, like in knowledge, power, wealth, etc., our dependence on
him would still grow since we will be entering more and more into
God’s own mystery.
In other words, we can say that the more stature we gain
in our earthly life, the more dependent on God we become. And that’s
simply because we would be touching on more mysteries of God.
Our attitude toward this tremendous and most mysterious
love of God for us should be that of extreme gratitude and fidelity,
and to love him as much as we could in return, since love is always
repaid with love.
Concerning this point, it’s good to remember that we
should always feel very close to God because He is first of all very
close to us with his love. Yes, even if we are unworthy and imperfect,
God will always love us, and it’s right that we always feel confident
and sure of this love.
At the same time, we should never stop trying to get to
know and love him more and more, because even if he is the closest
being to us, he is also the farthest, since he is pure mystery to us.
This latter reality about God should spur, not curb, our effort to
find more ways to know, love and serve him.
Just consider these points which I am sure are not complete. In fact,
they are still very far from complete, even if we think they are
already quite exhaustive and overwhelming.
First, He created us when there was no need for him to do
so. More than that, He created us in his very own image and likeness,
taking the risk that we can replace him ourselves.
And when finally we, in Adam and Eve, fell to that
temptation of replacing God, he continues to love by sending his own
son to redeem us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” (Jn 3,16)
And the son assumed all our sins by dying on the cross and
resurrecting. There can be no greater love than this. God has done
this because the Son, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is the
perfect image of God himself. And since we are the image and likeness
of God, the Son has to repair that divine image of ours that has been
deformed by our sin.
God in Christ continues to go through the process of
redeeming us by dying and resurrecting all throughout time by sending
the Holy Spirit, founding the Church and the instituting the
sacraments, especially that of the Holy Eucharist. St. Josemaria
Escriva has described the Holy Eucharist as God’s madness of love for
us.
And the list goes on and on. It will never end. Again, why
does God love us so much? We can only repeat some words of the Psalms:
“What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you
care for him?” (8,4)
We can only wager some possible answers. One of them could
be that it is precisely because we have been created in his image and
likeness that God cannot leave us alone. In a way, we can say that he
sees himself in us, no matter how much we deform that divine image in
us.
In this regard, God is like the mother mentioned in the
Book of Isaiah. “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no
compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will
not forget you.” (49,15)
Besides, even in the natural plane, there is hardly any
mother who will not clean her child no matter how dirty the child is.
It’s instinctive of her to do whatever is needed to clean the child or
to get him out of any predicament.
That, at the very least, is how God sees and treats us. He
of course does a lot more. To top it all, we should not forget that no
matter how gifted and accomplished we may be in our human affairs, all
of us are always more helpless and clueless before God than we can be
before our respective parents.
In fact, we can outsmart our parents. But with God, never.
We will always be like little children to him, growing more dependent
on him. Even if we appear to have gained more stature in our earthly
condition, like in knowledge, power, wealth, etc., our dependence on
him would still grow since we will be entering more and more into
God’s own mystery.
In other words, we can say that the more stature we gain
in our earthly life, the more dependent on God we become. And that’s
simply because we would be touching on more mysteries of God.
Our attitude toward this tremendous and most mysterious
love of God for us should be that of extreme gratitude and fidelity,
and to love him as much as we could in return, since love is always
repaid with love.
Concerning this point, it’s good to remember that we
should always feel very close to God because He is first of all very
close to us with his love. Yes, even if we are unworthy and imperfect,
God will always love us, and it’s right that we always feel confident
and sure of this love.
At the same time, we should never stop trying to get to
know and love him more and more, because even if he is the closest
being to us, he is also the farthest, since he is pure mystery to us.
This latter reality about God should spur, not curb, our effort to
find more ways to know, love and serve him.
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