27 June 2014 - into his sacred heart

27 June 2014 - into his sacred heart


It was not because you are the largest of all nations
that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you,
for you are really the smallest of all nations.
It was because the LORD loved you

The heart of the LORD is set on us!  He chooses us!  It isn't because we do anything to deserve it.

In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

His love for us is not something abstract.  It is no mere lofty ideal.  It isn't a nice word we chant as a mantra.  It is the love of a Father.  It is revealed in the complete self-gift of the Son. 

No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

The Son's obedience in the face of suffering and death is predicated on the unconditional love he shares with the Father.  That love is unshakable.  The cross reveals it, finally, to us.  Only because this love is so unlimited is the cross even possible.  To understand this love we too must become as little ones.  We must share in the relationship Jesus has with his Father.

"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

The heart of Jesus is meek and humble, completely obedient and surrendered to the Father.  Let's come to him and lay down our own labor and burdens, our own projects, and take his yoke instead.  Let us learn from his trust in his Father.  Let us share in that surrender so that he may also give us his rest.

But again, it is not abstract.  It is not a mere thought or state of mind.  The Father's embrace is so profound that it absolutely must bear fruit in our lives.  It must have effect.  If it does not, it is not really that embrace, it is illusion.

Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.

It is when we love that we are begotten by God.  In other words, when we think we are doing something, it is really God who is doing it in us. 

God is love, and whoever remains in love
remains in God and God in him.

We know the greatness of God.  We fear him, thinking that this is the beginning of wisdom.  But Jesus reveals that we fear wrongly.  We fear a judge.  We find a Father.  We need holy fear.  But it a very specific sort of fear.  It is the fear that children have when they do not want to offend their Father.  Fear of a judge will lead to us trying harder on our own, striving apart from God.  Fear of our Father will make us more meek and humble, more obedient and trusting.  Fear of a judge is the sort of fear that would prefer to be elsewhere, outside of the jurisdiction of the judge.  Fear of a Father prefers nowhere to the Father's presence.

Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
 
He brings us out from places of slavery.  He pardons our iniquities and heals our ills.  We need to know the Father's heart so that we can trust it like Jesus does.  Only in trusting it do we find the perfect love which casts out worldly fear (cf. 1 Joh. 4:18).  Only in this embrace is virtue possible.  Only secure in his love can we "carefully observe the commandments, the statutes, and decrees" which he enjoins on us.  Only in these arms do we find rest.