What is love? Baby don’t hurt me.
Love is such a ubiquitous word, especially for English speakers. We love pie (or cake), we love our friends, our girlfriends, we love our country and we love getting off work early. We love our God. But even though we use the same word for different things, we don’t think that the love we have for pie is the same kind of love we have for God or girlfriends (though I may love pecan pie more many girlfriends…)
Because we have one word that covers so many things, it’s hard to know what people mean when they use it. When they use love as a philosophy and say things like: “We should just love other people,” the question should be “what kind of love?”
Jesus did said “love thy neighbor,” but he had a very specific idea in mind. He taught that there are two commandments based on love: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind,” and “love thy neighbor like thyself.” The second commandment is like the first, because the first says that love is giving everything to God, our entire selves. If we give that kind of love to our neighbor, it makes sense that we would love our neighbor like ourselves. They have part of us with them.
Love means gifting ourselves to others. It’s not a desire, or an appreciation, or tolerance. To love like Jesus tells us to is to share openly and be vulnerable; it means investing ourselves in others in ways that they may use to hurt us later. That is why there is an ethic to love.
In the parable of the good Samaritan, love implies a duty, a call to action. We are called to relationship, and to ignore a stranger in need is to ignore a brother or ignore yourself. Being called to love means that the people we meet have the capacity to receive that love; it means acknowledging the humanity in one other, the spark of God we share between us.
Love also entails a responsibility. When we sin and fall short of God, we harm ourselves. We are who we should be when we are at our best, and that best is when we follow God. This is why Jesus tells the apostles that when a brother sins against you, show him his fault between the two of you. If that does not work, bring a friend, and if that still doesn’t work then bring him before the elders of the church. If none of these succeed in correcting your brother, then expel him from the community. We have a responsibility to convert the world because the Christian life is the truest and leads to the person God intends for us to be. When our brothers and sisters in Christ fall short, love impels us to correct them. The tough love we are commanded to show other Christians is only tough because salvation is so serious. If they profess to want it, they should not be accepted as they are, but as they should be.
When people use “love” they usually mean “tolerate” or “accept.” They mean that we shouldn’t judge other people, or impose our own beliefs. Many people use “love” as a way to remain impartial or take no sides, but that kind of love means loving other people no more than cake or pie. I accept them as they are, without requiring change.
But a love that means relationship, where people hold parts of our heart, soul, and mind requires more than that. That intimacy requires duty, responsibility. We can hurt each other too easily. This is what marriage is: a promise before God and the Church to hold in trust and commitment the gift of self our spouse is making. This is why sex outside of marriage is so damaging, because we love and give ourselves to each other with abandon, and that gift is so often betrayed.
Love is a holy thing. It should be treated as such, with all the respect, awe, responsibility, cherishment, and grace it deserves. It is hard to be in relationship with all people, but love demands we be open to that. It is hard to demand people change when we say we love them, but if we demand the best from ourselves we cannot do less for others. It is hard to honor the love between us correctly, and we hurt each other too much.
But this is the love that Jesus models for us, the love that loved perfectly but suffered, that accepts our wounds against him and loves us still. Love in the world is raw and tender, but it is the greatest gift we are given.
Showing posts with label God's love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's love. Show all posts
Monday, November 12, 2012
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/073111.shtml
Jesus satisfies!
This is the message to take away from Scripture today. When we speak to other people about the wonder of Christ, we usually start with salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Which is good, but it’s very theological and can sometimes sound empty if we forget why we salvation is good, why we want to be forgiven. It’s because Jesus satisfies us completely, in a way that nothing else does.
Like the first reading says, we are thirsty, and we come to the water. We are poor, but receive grain and eat. We pay no price, but eat rich food and drink wine and milk. These are metaphors, but they tell us that what is lacking in us in found in Jesus Christ. The best reason for getting to know Jesus, is that life is better with Him.
The second reading is powerful, and deserves to be read multiple times. Because what will separate us from the love of Christ? Not anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or death, or life, or present things, or future things; none of these can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and that is a powerful statement.
When we struggle with temptation, what is it that we believe in that moment? We know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and this is a love that satisfies, which gives us everything we need. Do we believe that? Or when we are tempted, do we believe that temptation is more powerful? This is the lie we tell ourselves, to convince ourselves to fail. Because Christ’s love is powerful and allows to conquer overwhelmingly the things which stand in our way.
Do we remember all that times that Jesus satisfies us? It is easy to forget, when there is always a new problem or a new worry. But let us take time right now to remember the good things that God has brought us, and how He has always been with us. Because God is good all the time, and all the time He will satisfy us if we will take and eat.
When Jesus feeds the five thousand, He is given five loaves and two fish. But He blesses that food, and when all is finished there is twelve baskets of food left over. What we have to give, is not enough for God’s work in the world; but with Jesus, everything we have is taken and multiplied until not only is there enough, but there is more than enough to satisfy.
When Jesus fed the five thousand, there were twelve baskets of food left over. What should be done with those twelve baskets? God satisfies us with more than we need, so the next logical thing is to bring the extra to those who are still unsatisfied. We have been given more of God’s love than we can hold, and so we must share it!
This is the good news, that we can be satisfied! And not by spending enough money, or dieting enough, or having enough sex or attention; we will be satisfied by the love of Jesus, if we only take and eat of it.
Jesus satisfies!
This is the message to take away from Scripture today. When we speak to other people about the wonder of Christ, we usually start with salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Which is good, but it’s very theological and can sometimes sound empty if we forget why we salvation is good, why we want to be forgiven. It’s because Jesus satisfies us completely, in a way that nothing else does.
Like the first reading says, we are thirsty, and we come to the water. We are poor, but receive grain and eat. We pay no price, but eat rich food and drink wine and milk. These are metaphors, but they tell us that what is lacking in us in found in Jesus Christ. The best reason for getting to know Jesus, is that life is better with Him.
The second reading is powerful, and deserves to be read multiple times. Because what will separate us from the love of Christ? Not anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or death, or life, or present things, or future things; none of these can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and that is a powerful statement.
When we struggle with temptation, what is it that we believe in that moment? We know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and this is a love that satisfies, which gives us everything we need. Do we believe that? Or when we are tempted, do we believe that temptation is more powerful? This is the lie we tell ourselves, to convince ourselves to fail. Because Christ’s love is powerful and allows to conquer overwhelmingly the things which stand in our way.
Do we remember all that times that Jesus satisfies us? It is easy to forget, when there is always a new problem or a new worry. But let us take time right now to remember the good things that God has brought us, and how He has always been with us. Because God is good all the time, and all the time He will satisfy us if we will take and eat.
When Jesus feeds the five thousand, He is given five loaves and two fish. But He blesses that food, and when all is finished there is twelve baskets of food left over. What we have to give, is not enough for God’s work in the world; but with Jesus, everything we have is taken and multiplied until not only is there enough, but there is more than enough to satisfy.
When Jesus fed the five thousand, there were twelve baskets of food left over. What should be done with those twelve baskets? God satisfies us with more than we need, so the next logical thing is to bring the extra to those who are still unsatisfied. We have been given more of God’s love than we can hold, and so we must share it!
This is the good news, that we can be satisfied! And not by spending enough money, or dieting enough, or having enough sex or attention; we will be satisfied by the love of Jesus, if we only take and eat of it.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/072411.shtml
“Lord, I love your commands.”
That’s really the trick, isn’t it? If the story of Solomon teaches us anything, it’s that it’s not enough to know what is right. We can be as wise and as understanding as God, but if we don’t want to do what’s right we won’t. We will end up resenting the right thing to do, and hate ourselves. With good reason; I wouldn’t like someone either who forced themselves to do one thing, while being jealous of everyone else doing another and having way more fun doing it.
It’s not enough to do good because it is good. Actions alone do not merit Heaven, we have to change our desires as well. To be holy is to be free to do whatever you want, because everything you want is good to do. When our hearts conform to God’s will, we will be satisfied.
God encourages us in this, and “all things work for good for those who love God.” But learning to love God is the hard part, because God’s commands are often opposite to what we learn is satisfying. For those who want to be chaste, they may want to follow God but they also want be sexually active like the people around them. For those who want to be merciful, it’s hard when what you really want is to get revenge.
This is why Jesus describes the kingdom of Heaven in different ways, because each way gives a new meaning as to why we want it.
First, the kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure. We may or may not be looking for it, but when we find it we know it is better than anything else we have. And it is worth giving up everything to have it.
Second, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant. The kingdom is also looking for us, and God will do everything to bring us to Him. While the kingdom is a treasure without equal, to God, so are we.
Third, the kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net. The people who are not worthy of it will not inherit it. It is a prize, and so, so good, but it will not be forced upon us. We who do not choose it will not receive it.
Why would we love God’s commands? Because in the kingdom of Heaven means free love, in the true sense of that phrase. Hate and sin bind us, bind us in jealousy, discontent, anger, despair, and every other chain. But God’s commands are not weights around our feet, but the sturdy bones of the Body of Christ. They hold us steady when we try to follow God, and when we are weak we lean on them. God’s commands are the first step on our road away from sin, and we love because they lead us to God. And when we know God, we love them because the commands are good.
It’s hard to describe the kingdom without sounding cutesy. When we are building the kingdom of Heaven on earth, we are loving others and they love us. What we want most of all is to be loved, just for who we are. When we are in the kingdom, we tear down the walls in ourselves and between us and others that keeps us from that love. But that openness does not come natural to us, and so God’s commands are our first teachers in love.
“Lord, I love your commands.”
That’s really the trick, isn’t it? If the story of Solomon teaches us anything, it’s that it’s not enough to know what is right. We can be as wise and as understanding as God, but if we don’t want to do what’s right we won’t. We will end up resenting the right thing to do, and hate ourselves. With good reason; I wouldn’t like someone either who forced themselves to do one thing, while being jealous of everyone else doing another and having way more fun doing it.
It’s not enough to do good because it is good. Actions alone do not merit Heaven, we have to change our desires as well. To be holy is to be free to do whatever you want, because everything you want is good to do. When our hearts conform to God’s will, we will be satisfied.
God encourages us in this, and “all things work for good for those who love God.” But learning to love God is the hard part, because God’s commands are often opposite to what we learn is satisfying. For those who want to be chaste, they may want to follow God but they also want be sexually active like the people around them. For those who want to be merciful, it’s hard when what you really want is to get revenge.
This is why Jesus describes the kingdom of Heaven in different ways, because each way gives a new meaning as to why we want it.
First, the kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure. We may or may not be looking for it, but when we find it we know it is better than anything else we have. And it is worth giving up everything to have it.
Second, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant. The kingdom is also looking for us, and God will do everything to bring us to Him. While the kingdom is a treasure without equal, to God, so are we.
Third, the kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net. The people who are not worthy of it will not inherit it. It is a prize, and so, so good, but it will not be forced upon us. We who do not choose it will not receive it.
Why would we love God’s commands? Because in the kingdom of Heaven means free love, in the true sense of that phrase. Hate and sin bind us, bind us in jealousy, discontent, anger, despair, and every other chain. But God’s commands are not weights around our feet, but the sturdy bones of the Body of Christ. They hold us steady when we try to follow God, and when we are weak we lean on them. God’s commands are the first step on our road away from sin, and we love because they lead us to God. And when we know God, we love them because the commands are good.
It’s hard to describe the kingdom without sounding cutesy. When we are building the kingdom of Heaven on earth, we are loving others and they love us. What we want most of all is to be loved, just for who we are. When we are in the kingdom, we tear down the walls in ourselves and between us and others that keeps us from that love. But that openness does not come natural to us, and so God’s commands are our first teachers in love.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/061911.shtml
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and we are called to meditate on that mystery. We believe in 1 God in 3 Persons, where there is only One God, but God has a Son; we believe also in the Holy Spirit “which proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified.”
It’s heady stuff; what the Trinity means has been a subject of study ever since the Resurrection, and will be so until the end of the world. But at its most basic, it means love. Love does not exist in a vacuum, love does not exist between one person and themselves. But God is Love, and so much so that He must exist as the Trinity.
God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one Being, and have always existed, none before the other. “I believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, begot and not made, one being with the Father.” We believe that even though Jesus is the Son of God, there was no time when Jesus was not. One of the hardest things to understand is that the Trinity has always existed as the Trinity, always One, always 3 Persons.
What is the Holy Spirit? My favorite description of the Holy Spirit is that the love between God the Father and Jesus the Son is so real and powerful and alive that it exists as the Holy Spirit. Because it is God, this Love is God as well.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” If God is Love, and the Trinity is fundamentally about Love, and the Holy Spirit is a Love so real it is God, how strongly are we loved! Everyone knows the verse John 3:16, but its familiarity blinds us sometimes to scale of love involved. God sacrificed His Son to save the world, the Son whom He loves so much that the Love between them is God.
If love could be approximated in terms of size, God does not love us with buckets of love, or mountains of love. He doesn’t love us with continents, or worlds, or galaxies of love. He loves us with more than universes of love, He loves us with God’s amount of Love, and that amount is incomprehensible.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity reminds us to think about who God is. We get busy worrying about our lives and the lives around us, and we forget who it is we worship. We worship God, the Trinity of Love. God does not just love the world, but each of us individually, to the point that He knows the hairs on our heads. He loves us with a God’s Love, and today we remember that and what that means.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and we are called to meditate on that mystery. We believe in 1 God in 3 Persons, where there is only One God, but God has a Son; we believe also in the Holy Spirit “which proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified.”
It’s heady stuff; what the Trinity means has been a subject of study ever since the Resurrection, and will be so until the end of the world. But at its most basic, it means love. Love does not exist in a vacuum, love does not exist between one person and themselves. But God is Love, and so much so that He must exist as the Trinity.
God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one Being, and have always existed, none before the other. “I believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, begot and not made, one being with the Father.” We believe that even though Jesus is the Son of God, there was no time when Jesus was not. One of the hardest things to understand is that the Trinity has always existed as the Trinity, always One, always 3 Persons.
What is the Holy Spirit? My favorite description of the Holy Spirit is that the love between God the Father and Jesus the Son is so real and powerful and alive that it exists as the Holy Spirit. Because it is God, this Love is God as well.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” If God is Love, and the Trinity is fundamentally about Love, and the Holy Spirit is a Love so real it is God, how strongly are we loved! Everyone knows the verse John 3:16, but its familiarity blinds us sometimes to scale of love involved. God sacrificed His Son to save the world, the Son whom He loves so much that the Love between them is God.
If love could be approximated in terms of size, God does not love us with buckets of love, or mountains of love. He doesn’t love us with continents, or worlds, or galaxies of love. He loves us with more than universes of love, He loves us with God’s amount of Love, and that amount is incomprehensible.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity reminds us to think about who God is. We get busy worrying about our lives and the lives around us, and we forget who it is we worship. We worship God, the Trinity of Love. God does not just love the world, but each of us individually, to the point that He knows the hairs on our heads. He loves us with a God’s Love, and today we remember that and what that means.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/022711.shtml
There are few things more comforting, or more scary, than God watching over us at every moment.
The first reading reminds us that God’s love is stronger and more enduring than anything else we know. Even compared to the love of a mother for her child, God’s love for us is stronger than that. He will never forget us, and cannot possibly forsake us. He and us are connected more strongly than that, and His spirit dwells within us. Not a hair on our head goes uncounted, and every tear and smile He notices.
This is why Jesus tells us not to worry. Because of God, we are transformed. Life is now about more than food or clothes, money or respect. In fact, Paul tells us he holds the judgments of others as no account. God is mighty, and if we hold to our faith God will see us through. We will suffer sometimes. But even in our loneliest hour God wraps His arms around us, and we are never alone. “Even should a mother forget her child, I will never forget you.”
But if He is always with us in our suffering, He is also always with us in our prosperity. When things are going well, and we judge or shun others, He notices. When we choose not to serve God, even in the smallest moments He is watching over us, loving us, but also grieving at our choices. Because Paul reminds us that no one judges us but the Lord, but the Lord will judge us at the appointed time. “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts.”
The Lord is our rock and our salvation, steadfast and everlasting. But it is faithfulness which is required to cling to that rock. Today is the second week in a row where Jesus compares the children of God to the pagans. It is the pagans this week who constantly worry about what they will drink, what they will eat; last week we read that even the pagans are good to their friends. But because we know Jesus our lives should be different than if we didn’t.
Our loyalty should be visible; “faith is proof of what is hoped for, and evidence of things unseen.” If we have faith in God, then our faith is our assurance that God will provide for us. Our faith is evidence of God’s loyalty and love to us. God knows what we need, and we need not worry about what is lacking in our lives. Not that we should stop working and lie on the ground, trusting God to put food in our mouths. But that if we trust God He will take charge of our lives and they will be good. They will be holy.
Do not worry about tomorrow, sufficient for today is its own evil. Trust God and His judgments, and distrust your own. We are not called to be wise, but to be faithful. We are God’s people, and the only judgment we should be concerned with is God’s.
God’s love is ever faithful, and always watching over us.
There are few things more comforting, or more scary, than God watching over us at every moment.
The first reading reminds us that God’s love is stronger and more enduring than anything else we know. Even compared to the love of a mother for her child, God’s love for us is stronger than that. He will never forget us, and cannot possibly forsake us. He and us are connected more strongly than that, and His spirit dwells within us. Not a hair on our head goes uncounted, and every tear and smile He notices.
This is why Jesus tells us not to worry. Because of God, we are transformed. Life is now about more than food or clothes, money or respect. In fact, Paul tells us he holds the judgments of others as no account. God is mighty, and if we hold to our faith God will see us through. We will suffer sometimes. But even in our loneliest hour God wraps His arms around us, and we are never alone. “Even should a mother forget her child, I will never forget you.”
But if He is always with us in our suffering, He is also always with us in our prosperity. When things are going well, and we judge or shun others, He notices. When we choose not to serve God, even in the smallest moments He is watching over us, loving us, but also grieving at our choices. Because Paul reminds us that no one judges us but the Lord, but the Lord will judge us at the appointed time. “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts.”
The Lord is our rock and our salvation, steadfast and everlasting. But it is faithfulness which is required to cling to that rock. Today is the second week in a row where Jesus compares the children of God to the pagans. It is the pagans this week who constantly worry about what they will drink, what they will eat; last week we read that even the pagans are good to their friends. But because we know Jesus our lives should be different than if we didn’t.
Our loyalty should be visible; “faith is proof of what is hoped for, and evidence of things unseen.” If we have faith in God, then our faith is our assurance that God will provide for us. Our faith is evidence of God’s loyalty and love to us. God knows what we need, and we need not worry about what is lacking in our lives. Not that we should stop working and lie on the ground, trusting God to put food in our mouths. But that if we trust God He will take charge of our lives and they will be good. They will be holy.
Do not worry about tomorrow, sufficient for today is its own evil. Trust God and His judgments, and distrust your own. We are not called to be wise, but to be faithful. We are God’s people, and the only judgment we should be concerned with is God’s.
God’s love is ever faithful, and always watching over us.
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