“For the Father Himself Loves You” by Melanie Rigney
Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter
(Apollos) began to speak to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the Way of the Cross more accurately. (Acts 18:26)
God is king of all the earth. (Psalm 47:8a)
"The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God." (John 16:25-27)
Piety
Lord, can Your love for me truly be limitless? Can my love for You and my brothers and sisters truly be limitless? While I need not understand the how or why, help my words, thoughts, and actions embrace You and them fearlessly and fully.
Study
We all know the dynamics. Mom is the parent most likely to say no, so you convince Dad first that your curfew should be later, that you really need that new bike, that you're old enough to have your ears pierced. At the very least, he helps you make your case. At the very best, he agrees to navigate the request without you even having to participate. Difficult conversation avoided.
A friend missed your birthday, and you're really sad and, let's be honest, a bit angry about it. You tell Friend #2, who offers to say something to Friend #1 for you. You demur for a bit, but you're relieved. Difficult conversation avoided.
Jesus has told us all about the Almighty's love for us. But we still wonder. Jesus, we get, to a degree, at least the fully human aspect. He laughed, He wept, He ate, He slept. But the Almighty? We may still have the view we embraced in childhood of a thunderous old man in the clouds. The concept of the Almighty as Light, Joy, and Love… can be more problematic for us. (Let's not even get into the mystery of the Holy Trinity right now.)
In today's Gospel reading, Jesus urges us to believe not only that He came from God but that God loves us. Jesus's mission was to reunite us with God, to demonstrate just how much we are loved, to show us God desires not to thunder at us from the clouds but to hold us so close that we can shrug aside the world's hurts.
And when we accept that love, no conversation with God is difficult.
Action
Accept God’s love, regardless of how unlovable you feel today.[i]
[i] Image credit is Gerd Altmann from Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/photos/faith-love-hope-hands-contact-3772000/
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