Lenten Reflection #5
Continuing from the last post....
Commanding love is like telling the wind to blow or a man to breath or a toddler to be still (in my case). It is impossible to do- without a very good reason. Thankfully God gives us many good reasons why we must love him. The first two that come to mind is that we cannot live without His love and that he loved first. I am trying to mediate on the second one this Lent. If you think of the Jesus' life as one great love story for you- and only you, it starts to sound like an epic love story. After all, Jesus would have gone through all that he did, if it were to save only ONE person, so we can look at it as if he did it all for us personally. Think: first the lover, seeing his beloved (you or me) fall into danger, flies down from his lofty palace (heaven) to rescue her. He is so desperate to win her love and to spend every moment of the rest of his life with her (eternity) that he is willing to live as a humble peasant (think medieval love story) and endure every kind of cruelty for the sake of his beloved. This is beginning to sound like a pretty good love story, but it gets better! He ends up dying for his lover's sake, but then comes back from the dead because not even death can keep the great Lover from his beloved. Now after all that, how can anyone say they don't have a reason to love God??
There are countless tangible ways that God shows his love first- I only have to turn my head to count about fifty ways I can see God's love right in front of me- and that's not even thinking very hard.
All this is why God can command love. He gives us some pretty convincing reasons why we should love him, so why is it still so hard?? I have been asking myself this very question this lent.
I'll reflect on one way it may be hard to love him (based on Pope Benedict's Deus Caritas Est) in the next Lenten reflection .
3 comments:
Hi Sarah
This is a post to make one think! As you say, there are many, many reasons to love God. His love for us is so very obvious and so very great. But we humans don't always love the people who love us, do we. I can't remember when I didn't love God. Even as a very young child I was aware of God and of His love for me. In childlike innocence and total trust, I loved Him, too. So, was that because of my upbringing or is it an intrinsic love? There are lots of answers kicking around out there. Some of them might even be right! I look forward to your next post. Thanks and God bless you.
Great reflection, BG- you must be very greatful for your good upbringing. Thank you for sharing thoughts from your beautiful soul!
Lovely reflection. Made me think. Lately I've been working on finding God in everything, to be more conscious of His working in my life. God bless you.
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