April 6, 2011
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
By Jack Finnerty
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. Isaiah 49:8-15
The LORD is just in all his ways and holy in all his works. The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. Psalm 145:17-18
Jesus answered the Jews: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”…. Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. Matthew 5:17-30
Piety
“God loves each one of us far more than we can ever imagine. When times are going well or when things are going bad, His love never changes. There is so much comfort in that. Your whole life will light up when you know in every fiber of your being that God is head-over-heels in love with you. He feels your every pain and heartache. He loves and He cares - He's not just watching - He's actively doing something about it, you may be sure.” Sr. Francelle Clark (http://lifegroup413.org/guest-authors/)
Study
As a kid, I remember my mother and father telling me that God loved me, and he loved me just as I was. I was amazed at that, the wonder of it all, but I could understand it and I accepted it. Then, as I got older, I was told that God loved everybody like he loved me. How could that be – I mentally had an image of God dividing his love equally among everybody on earth, each getting his or her own piece of that love. There was only so much of God’s love and if everybody got a piece, then no piece could be very big. I could somewhat understand that and accept it – not too happy that I was only getting a little piece of his love, but willing to take what I could get.
As an adult, I realized that the Lord’s love is not finite as I thought as a child, but indeed infinite, and each one of us receives all of his love. All of the facets of that immense, unconditional, and everlasting love are almost beyond comprehension, but may be simply expressed by the following:
God loves us:
--always has
--always will
There is nothing that we can do to make God love us:
--more
--less
The father’s love is given to Jesus:
--Jesus gives that love to us
--and we give that love to others.
I don’t fully understand exactly how all of those could be true, but I believe every one of them.
Action
As we draw ever closer to the end of this Lenten season, how do we share to others the love that Jesus has given us? In what ways do we show our love for those around us, our families, our neighbors, our parish family, and our coworkers?
