Friday, January 25, 2019

RECOGNIZING GOD'S LOVE

We have a brother who is a regular Sunday columnist in a leading broadsheet in the country. This is his form of preaching the good news. One Sunday, another brother told our brother-columnist in jest, "It is almost past the hour of twelve, and your news paper is still neatly folded. Why don't you crumple it yourself a little so it would appear that someone has read your article!" There are a lot of good things in this world which results from the best efforts of good people. How many of us appreciate them? 

God loves us, as He is love Himself. Through the Love incarnate, Christ, He proclaims and lives by loving: proclaiming liberty to captives of sin, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed. Christ has done wondrous things in our life. Through Christ, we experience God's love.

Sometimes, we fail to appreciate the graces and blessings we receive from God and easily dismiss them as mere coincidences or ordinary things (Who is this but Joseph's son?). We fail miserably to recognize the love of God. Our PREJUDICES AND BIASES prevent us from seeing God's work. We have our expectations. We hold on and insist on them but God has His own way. We lack faith to recognize the love of God manifested in His will for our lives.

Our failure to recognize Christ's love disables us to love like Jesus; to love God and our neighbor. Instead of love, hate and displeasure reigns in our heart, for we are not convinced of the power of Christ over our lives. Christ is the model of love we ought to pursue in faith. Without an inspiration, without experiencing God's love through Christ, we are at a loss on how to love. Faith and love compliment each other. Believing in the goodness each person possesses enables us to love even the unlovable. Loving enables us to believe this love is possible. Faith and love facilitates appreciation of the goodness of God and of neighbor, and moves us in faith to love our neighbor as God loves us.   


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