We’ve all heard the teaching that God is love. And that’s a good thing to remember: I tell our school students they should always remember that, and if they do, they’ll know quite a bit about our God. God is love in its purest form, so pure in fact that it burns away all our imperfections and makes us new people, washed clean in the Blood of Christ. True love wills the good of the other for the sake of the other, and God models that best by having sent His only Son to live our life and die our death and raise us to new life with him forever.
Today, the word “love” is tossed about in all sorts of ways. Love can be construed as lust, or even affection, and real love isn’t any of that. The popular saying is that “love is love,” and nothing could be further from the truth. Real love isn’t bound by agendas, selfishness, or pride, and it is hard, no impossible, for us to avoid those things given our fallen human nature. But, if we let Him, if we get out of his way, God will fill us with his grace, and give us love emanating from the Sacred Heart of Jesus that will fill our lives with love beyond measure.
And let’s be clear: God loved us first and loves us best. He loved us into creation and sustains us in his love. Because God is love, he cannot not love. But our agendas, selfishness, and pride can certainly get in the way, and now is the time to root all of that out because our world, our communities, our families, our churches need our love. Everyone needs to see the Sacred Heart burning in us, because this world, left to its own crime, sin and blasphemy, is way too sad without it.
We are all broken and hurting and in pain, spiritually. We might ignore it, or offer it up, or worst of all, might try to mask it with alcohol or other addictions. But none of that really heals us. The only thing that really heals is the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The same is true for our broken world.
We don’t trust God as much as we should; we don’t let God love us as much as we should. We want to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, take care of number one all by ourselves. Pope Francis says that God never gets tired of showing us mercy, it’s we who get tired of asking. And that’s so wrong. We weren’t made for that. We were made to be cared for and to be loved so that we can take care of others and love them in the name of Christ.
God’s love is awesome. It doesn’t just cover our sins, it wipes them out, obliterates them so that they aren’t who we are any more. In the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we find a love that is so pure and so powerful that it cannot be overshadowed by any kind of darkness, nor be snuffed out even by the grave.
But we absolutely have to let him love us, or we will miss it every time.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.