Think about His Love.

Think about His Love
Think about His Goodness
Think about His Grace
That's brought us through

For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our Father's Love

Great is the measure of our Father's Love.

How could I forget His Love?
How could I forget His Mercy?
He satisfies my desires.

~

Today, God answered my prayers in a heart-wrenching manner - In the form of a question.

It's amazing how God can make a question an answer in itself!

He asked me: "Do you love Me?"

And then it dawned upon me - and He reminded me that it is THE commandment.

We need to be constantly reminded that we are in a loving relationship with God. Why is that?

Let's draw a parallel - You have a girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse. Do you love them as much as you love God? Or do you love them differently (whatever that means)? Or, do you love God as much as you love them?

~

The homily by Father Chris spoke of Love. God's Love. Through him, God spoke to me:

God is always faithful and consistent. His love for us never changes, no matter how we behave, no matter how serious our sins may be.

God not only loves, he is love.

Love is of the very essence of his being; he cannot not love.

His love is like the sun which gives its warmth to good and bad alike. And we are called, as far as possible, to imitate him in this - to love always and unconditionally. Because we find that difficult, it is hard for us to think of God loving that way.

But, if God's love for us is so constant and unchanged by our behaviour - does that mean we can do anything we like; does it matter whether we lead good or bad lives? Know that God does not punish people because of their bad behaviour.

Though we sin, God continues to love us as he always did and does. Rather, when we sin - we are not loving him - we become separated from him.

Love is essentially a two-way process, it is a bonding.
Love is not complete until it is reciprocated on both sides.

So God's love is not fully effective in me until I have opened myself to receive it and to give mine in return. When we sin, God does not stop loving us; it is we who stop loving him. It is we who break the relationship.

In fact, every single experience I have is a sign of God's love. If I am showered with blessings - spiritual, emotional or material - they are given that I may share them with others, so that I become a channel of God's love to others. If I am struck down with disaster, disease, pain or failure, it is again a message for me to seek and find there, the presence of a loving God.

Where there is love, there is God. Conversely - where there is no God, one is not likely to find real love.

Jesus implied to me: Just because I am a baptised Christian and call myself 'Catholic', it is no guarantee that I will experience salvation and wholeness as a person. We cannot find our salvation and wholeness as persons without the love and the help of God.

Having a passport is no guarantee that I am a good and responsible citizen. Being baptised, even my presence at this Mass or my going to Confession is again, of itself, no guarantee that I really love God and love my brothers and sisters. For we know well, after years of attending Mass or "going to confession" our lives may show little sign of progress in spiritual or interpersonal growth and responsibility. So, it may be time for me to ask myself what exactly is happening in my Christian life.

I need to realise that God always and everywhere loves me. But that love is only fully completed in me, when I become a genuinely loving and caring person, one who loves both God and others in word and action.

We do have the choice to come closer to him, to experience that love he is reaching out to us, to open ourselves to that love or, like the Prodigal Son, go our own way and separate ourselves from him.

God will not save us against our will or without our co-operation.

The choice is up to us. God's love is there for the taking.

What are we waiting for?