that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Jesus wants us to know the full extent of his amazing love for us. He desires this for us not for sentimental reasons but because he understands that, if we know it, we will be transformed and fulfilled at the deepest level of our being. That it is not primarily about sentiment is evidenced by the fact that to comprehend it requires the strength, and that it described as something greater and not less than knowledge. Of course we don't need strength to feel sentimental about something. But to know his love for us in the way he intends does take strength. In fact, it surpasses human ability. The only reason it is possible at all is because of the work of the Spirit within us who makes Jesus himself real in our hearts by faith. Knowledge of the "breadth and length and height and depth" of his love is a relational awareness that comes from the experiencing this presence of his within our hearts.
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.
Living water of the Holy Spirit flowed from the wounded side of Christ. This was the "fountain of salvation" that flowed from his heart, the visible representation of the love he had for us. It was the same love which we would as the gift of the Holy Spirit. Meditating on the love Jesus showed for us opens us to receive more and more of that life giving Spirit who alone makes that love real to us, and who alone can therefore give us the experience of Jesus living within, which is what it means to be filled "with all the fullness of God."
Yet, though I stooped to feed my child,
they did not know that I was their healer.
Weak human hearts don't actually want to look for long at the suffering of Jesus because to such hearts it appears to simply be more pain in a fallen world, just one more tragedy among many. The possibility for growth arrives when we come see the love of Jesus as a sacrifice freely given for our sake, given so that the Spirit could be poured into our hearts, given as the source of every grace and blessing.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (see First John 4:16).
Saint John the Evangelist wrote of a knowledge that was greater and deeper than any mere sentimentality. It was a conviction that transformed him, from which he could draw strength in good times and in bad, in joy and in sorrow. It was a missionary conviction. It took the strength given by the Holy Spirit to receive it. And receiving it opened him to all the work that the Spirit would choose to do through him. The fire from the heart of Jesus set him on fire in turn with a flame that would not consume him.
For I am God and not a man,
the Holy One present among you;
I will not let the flames consume you.
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