By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life (Jn 3:16)… the Word presents in this verse, the crux of the mystery of God’s love! St. Paul would elaborate on this when he says, “God who did not spare God’s own son, will not withhold anything from us!” (Cf. Rom 8:32). God’s love for us has been so undeservedly deep! Have we ever been so worthy as to say, we deserved all the love that God holds out to us?
This undeservedly Deep Love of God, can be called an Igniting Love! It is an igniting love because God does loves us, that we may love each other! The Lord does not only burn with love for us, but ignites us with that love that we may burn in turn. We will do so only when we realise that this Igniting love of God is a gift, a grace and a gamble!
A Gift, because I have not worked for it, I have not merited it, I have not earned it! It is given to me! It is poured into my heart. At times when we love, we expect that love in return; we are disappointed and discouraged when we do not get it in return atleast to some measure. But look at God: in the first reading we have the situation where it is said, people added infidelity to infidelity, but still God raises up a situation where people feel the amazing love of God, walking back to their freedom.
A Grace, because it is totally unexpected, illogical and beyond all rational calculations. As St. Paul expresses in the second reading, ‘even when we were dead, God raised us up to be with God’s son, in eternal life…by grace we have been saved’ (cf. Eph 2:5).
I am reminded of an experience I had in the earliest year of my formation to priesthood, my novitiate days. During one of the morning meditations, I looked out of the window and saw a big tree cut down and the mighty bark lying dry and dead. Those were a bit trying days for me and I said to myself, I am lying around like that bark, so lifeless! Merely a fortnight later, through the same window and during a similar meditation hour, I looked out and the same bark caught my eye. What a surprise, in the dry bark from nowhere, a couple of tender leaves had sprouted! After all, I said, the Lord is able to raise a life from the lifeless! Elsewhere St. Paul would say, ‘while we were still weak, Christ died for us’ (cf Rom 5:6). It is totally an unexpected doing of the Lord, that I am loved! That love is indeed a grace!
A Gamble, because it is totally unconditional. God loved me not expecting that I will repay that love, not even knowing if I would choose to remain worthy of such deep love. The light is here, and it is upto us to choose the light. Not just choose the light, but be lighted up by that light… to be ignited by the love that is personified! The salvation is near and it is upto me to subscribe to it for myself. God dares take a gamble on me, God invests all the love that God has for me, knowing well the risk involved: that I may totally turn against God. In his Lenten message Pope Francis has given us a tremendous task: to revive love, to re-ignite this world with love, not to let love grow cold! But God’s love will never be surprised even if it is rejected, crushed and wounded. So deep is that love, so incredibly deep!
How deeply does God wish that we be truly ignited by the Love of God and Ignite this world with the same love!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.