God begs us to love him

FROM the Book of Proverbs comes this passage that shows us

how God practically begs us to love him. “My child, give me your heart

and let your eyes delight in my ways.” (23,26) Note that he does not

force us to love him, deferring to our sense of freedom, since that

freedom would enable us to truly love him in return if we use it

properly.

  

            We just have to learn how to give our heart to him and to

be delighted in his will and ways. Let’s remember that our heart is

actually the metonym of our whole being. It means the entirety of our

person and not just the organ that is only a part of our being, just

as the crown is used to mean the king himself.

  

            In other words, we have to learn to give our whole selves

to God, much like what is expressed in a song, “I have no use for

divided hearts / I give mine whole / and not in parts.”

  

            Yes, in spite of the many incomprehensible mysteries that

will be involved in our relation with God, we have to learn to give

our whole heart to him, that is, to say, our whole selves. We just do

not give what we consider to be the best of our being. We have to give

everything, all the rest of us.

   

            On the part of God, he has no problem receiving everything

that we are and have, warts and all, because he is a father who loves

us so much and who understands our weaknesses and mistakes, given our

limitations and the tremendous reality full of mysteries that we have

to contend with in this life.

  

            We should just try our best, knowing that our best will

never be enough. It can always be better. But God does not mind it.

Like a father before a little child, he is willing to get dirty with

us.

  

            And before God, we are actually even less than a child,

because his supernatural life which he likes to share with us, is so

above our nature that we can never reach it using our powers alone. He

is the one who enables us to reach it. He just wants that we would

want it too. Thus, he begs us to give our heart and to be delighted in

his ways, no matter how mysterious and difficult they are.

  

            Let us get to know him more and more. And let us let that

growing knowledge have the effect of making us love him more and more,

that is, of giving our heart entirely to him in a progressive way.

That’s because in this business of giving our heart to God, there is

always room for growing in our total love, in our total self-giving to

him. Love never says enough. By definition, it is something that is

given without measure, without limit.

   

            Let us not love God with our intellect alone, that is to

say, to love him in theory alone, or in principle, but not in actual

practice. Our love for God should involve our whole being, using all

our powers, all the way to our feelings and passions, our imagination

and memory, even in physical and material dimension of our life. It

has a strongly moral dimension, and not just doctrine. It is deeds,

not just good intentions and words.

  

            We have to show that love in our family life, in our

professional, social, political, cultural life, etc. God begs us to

give our heart to him in all moments of our life, not only in our

sacred moments but also in our mundane, temporal activities and

concerns.

   

            Let us help one another in learning to give our whole heart to God!