THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD
In today’s First Reading from the prophet Isaiah, I see the
prodigal love of God. He makes the rain fall, to water the earth, to make it
fertile. God says His Word will not return to Him without fulfilling what it
was intended to do. Isn’t that mind-blowing? God is always faithful to His end
of the bargain even if humanity is not. He is neither methodical nor
calculating. He is not discriminating. He does not say, “OK. You ignore Me and
My words. Why don’t I withhold the rain and the sun and let’s see if you will
persist in your arrogance?” No! He will still give seed for him who sows and
bread to him who eats. This is an image of the same God who lets His sun shine
“over the good and evil as well” (see Matthew 5:45).
How consoling this is. God
meets us where we are. He does not wait until we become good before He gives us
His attention. Isn’t this what John in his first epistle reminds us? “In this
is love: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us,
and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins”(1 John 4:10).
Even as we are often
indifferent, rebellious and disobedient, God plants seeds of His love in us
with the hope that we will bear fruit, even if it will be a slow and arduous
process.
God meets and loves us where
we are. A little caveat here: This is not a justification for complacency. God
loves us where we are but He loves us so much to just leave us there. There is
no need to be frustrated that we are so far from the state of perfection. What
really matters to God is that we labor in the road to perfection. Wherever we
are in our Christian journey, He will accompany us in the hope that we will
progress and in His gracious time and in His gracious way, we will yield a
fruit of a hundredfold, sixtyfold or thirtyfold! Fr. Joel Jason
REFLECTION QUESTION: Have you seriously done your part in your
faith covenant with God?
Father, You are prodigal in Your love for us. I praise and thank
You for that. Amen.
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