Category: Love

Of all religious symbols I think it is fair to say that the most familiar and perhaps most popular is the cross.  Christians are baptised with the sign of the cross.  They begin their prayer with the sign of the cross.  The cross is hung in church buildings and religious institutions.  It is placed on top of monuments and displayed in many of our homes.  It is even worn as a piece of jewellery around the neck and in the form of a broch.

So why does the cross have such significance for us?  “This thing called love,” to quote the words of a well-known song by the late Johnny Cash. For Christians the cross is above all a symbol of love.  It is the symbol of the love we all hunger for, desire and need.

We cannot separate is the cross from love.  The cross makes no sense apart from love.  Jesus changed the cross from a symbol of failure and death to a symbol of victory and hope by his radical love.   Jesus lived by the ‘rule’ of love and he died in fidelity to this love.     

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).  These are perhaps the most quoted words of scripture, displayed in all sorts of places and for all sorts of gatherings.  The greatest and most powerful revelation of God’s love was the death of his own beloved Son on the cross.  The cross is the symbol of the unconditional love that God has for each and every human person.  As we gaze at the cross how could we doubt that we are infinitely loved, how could we refuse to accept that we are cherished, precious, valued?  Through the symbol of the cross God says to each one of us, “I love you.”   

Unconditional love is the greatest power in the world.  It has the power to motivate, to liberate, to heal, to transform.  It even has the power to change death into life.  The power of the cross is the power of unconditional love. This is why Jesus said, “When I am lifted up on the cross I will draw all people to myself” (John 12: 32).  It is why the followers of Jesus continue to find hope and comfort in the cross.  And it is why the cross will always be the most used and most popular religious symbol of all.

Lord Jesus, each time I bless myself with the sign of the cross may I remember that you love me personally, affectionately and unconditionally.

For the majority of people the days of being governed by a king are long gone.  In most parts of the world kingships and kingdoms have given way to governments and democracies.  For this reason we are no longer familiar and perhaps even comfortable with what it means to be ruled by a king.  For this reason too Christians may find it difficult to relate to the idea that Jesus is our King.  If we are able to move beyond any initial reaction we may have we can come to see that the kingship of Jesus is a powerful and beautiful reality in the life of the Christian community.

To have Jesus as our King means that we have someone to look up to, someone who can inspire and guide us.  It means too that we have someone who is in control of our lives, someone with power.  To know that there is a powerful person in control of our lives makes us feel safe and secure; it also gives us confidence.

Of course there is a particular aspect to the kingship of Jesus that we need to keep in mind.  The Gospel tells us that Jesus is the person to whom we must give an account of ourselves when we die.  In other words, Jesus and Jesus only is the one who will judge us.  But what will Jesus our King base his judgement on?  Practical love.  Did we care for those in need?  Did we feed the hungry?  Did we visit the sick and the lonely?  Did we clothe the naked?  Did we practise what used to be called the corporal works of mercy?  St John of the Cross, the Carmelite poet and mystic puts it well. He says, “In the evening of life we will be examined in love.”

It is inspiring and encouraging for us to know that Jesus, our King, leads by example.  He does not ask us to do something that he did not do himself.  Jesus fed the hungry, he cured the sick, he befriended lepers and social outcasts, he comforted those who felt lost.  Jesus was a servant king. In fact, Jesus still is a servant king.  Jesus continues to identify himself with the poor, the weak, the unloved.  Indeed, in some mysterious way Jesus is actually present in them.  “As long as you did this to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did it to me” (Matt 25:40).  We meet Jesus in our neighbour and we serve Jesus in our neighbour.  This is why Jesus, our King, will judge us on how we treat others, especially those who are most vulnerable.

“What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.”  Many of us are familiar with this verse from the poem by William Henry Davies.  Many of us too are familiar with the experience the poet is describing.  There are perhaps a number of things that prevent us from taking time to stand and stare.  One in particular is rife in our culture today.  It is called busyness.

Why are we so busy?  The practical reason might be because we seem to have a lot of things to do.  But there may be a deeper reason.  Perhaps we are busy because we need to feel productive.  Perhaps we keep ourselves busy because we do not feel good about ourselves when we are doing nothing.  Perhaps we need to be busy because our value comes from what we do, not from who we are.  Measuring ourselves by our usefulness is called utilitarianism, a philosophy that originated back at the beginning of the 19^th century and has penetrated into the very core of our being.  The Anglo Saxon work ethic dominates our western culture and has a huge impact not only on the way we see ourselves, but, more importantly, on the way we feel about ourselves.

Perhaps another reason we keep ourselves busy is because we believe that we need to earn the acceptance and approval of Jesus.  “Look busy! Jesus is coming!” is a voice that has influenced our religious experience. It creates a double whammy that leaves us struggling.  Not only is busyness something we expect of ourselves; it is also something Jesus expects of us.  This is bad religion and a terrible misunderstanding of the good news of the Gospel.  Jesus’ love does not have to be earned. It is GIFT, not achievement.  Who we are is much more important to Jesus than what we do. He allows us to be and to rejoice in our ways of being.  This is what it means to be loved unconditionally by him.  Jesus is happy for us to take time to stand and stare.   Our culture may make us feel guilty doing it, but Jesus doesn’t!

Jesus once told a parable about a landowner who hired labourers to work in his vineyard (See Matt 20:1-16).  Some started work in the early morning, some at midday and some in the early evening.  In his generosity the landowner paid exactly the same wage to all who worked for him during the course of the day.  The actions of the landowner do appear to be unfair, even unjust.  Those who worked all day in the blazing hot sun received the same wage as those who worked one hour in the cool of the evening.

Today’s employers would certainly not get away with this approach to remuneration.  Ours is a culture of trade unions and worker’s rights and hourly rates of pay.  It is a culture of entitlement.  But Jesus’ parable is not about human rights and entitlements.  It is not about human justice.  It is about God.  It is about God’s abundant goodness and generosity. God isn’t generous towards us on the basis of what is right and fair and just.  God is generous towards us because we are his children, his sons and daughters whom he loves equally.

What Jesus is teaching us in this parable is this: we cannot buy or earn God’s love.  God’s love is free.  It is a gift, a pure gift offered to all without exception.  This is what we mean when we say that God loves us unconditionally.  There are no conditions attached to the way God loves.  The little word ‘if’ is not in God’s dictionary!  In practice this means that the Christian life is not about winning God’s approval and God’s favour.  It is not about making ourselves acceptable to God by our good deeds and our efforts to please him.  When we love we do so in response to God’s love for us; not in order to make God love us.

The renowned Lutheran theologian, Paul Tillich, has described the experience of being saved as our acceptance of the fact that we are accepted unconditionally by God.  God’s salvation is free and we must accept it freely.  The Father’s love is gift, not achievement.  Those who came at the twelfth hour got the same wage as those who came at the first hour because God does not love those who came at the twelfth hour any less than those who came at the first hour.  This is what we mean by radical grace.

Of all religious symbols I think it is fair to say that the most familiar and perhaps most popular is the cross.  Christians are baptised with the sign of the cross.  They begin their prayer with the sign of the cross.  The cross is hung in church buildings and religious institutions.  It is placed on top of monuments and displayed in many of our homes.  It is even worn as a piece of jewellery around the neck and in the form of a broch.

So why does the cross have such significance for us?  “This thing called love,” to quote the words of a well-known song by the late Johnny Cash. For Christians the cross is above all a symbol of love.  It is the symbol of the love we all hunger for, desire and need.

We cannot separate is the cross from love.  The cross makes no sense apart from love.  Jesus changed the cross from a symbol of failure and death to a symbol of victory and hope by his radical love.   Jesus lived by the ‘rule’ of love and he died in fidelity to this love.     

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).  These are perhaps the most quoted words of scripture, displayed in all sorts of places and for all sorts of gatherings.  The greatest and most powerful revelation of God’s love was the death of his own beloved Son on the cross.  The cross is the symbol of the unconditional love that God has for each and every human person.  As we gaze at the cross how could we doubt that we are infinitely loved, how could we refuse to accept that we are cherished, precious, valued?  Through the symbol of the cross God says to each one of us, “I love you.”   

Unconditional love is the greatest power in the world.  It has the power to motivate, to liberate, to heal, to transform.  It even has the power to change death into life.  The power of the cross is the power of unconditional love. This is why Jesus said, “When I am lifted up on the cross I will draw all people to myself” (John 12: 32).  It is why the followers of Jesus continue to find hope and comfort in the cross.  And it is why the cross will always be the most used and most popular religious symbol of all.

Lord Jesus, each time I bless myself with the sign of the cross may I remember that you love me personally, intimately and unconditionally.

It seems to me that much of religious practice is about our attempts to earn God’s approval and God’s favour.  We use rituals and good works to win God’s love.  We see these rituals and good works as requirements for pleasing God.  But there can also be something else about our religious practice, something perhaps more subtle.  It is this. Our religious practice can make us feel that we are better than others.  It can feed our egos. 

This seems to be what the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is about.  The Pharisee was trying to earn God’s love by pointing out all the meritorious things he was doing.  But he was also judging the tax collector beside him.  In his prayer he said to God, “I am doing good things, this tax collector isn’t.  I am better than him. I deserve your love, he doesn’t.”  In contrast, the tax collector’s prayer was very different.  He said to God, “I am a failure.  I haven’t done anything to deserve your love.  Have mercy on me. I need you to love me unconditionally.”

Interestingly, what Jesus describes in the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector is the very same thing he describes in the story of the father and his two sons, known as the Story of the Prodigal.  In this story the elder son who was the dutiful, obedient and dependable son said to his father, “Look, for years, I have done all these things for you.  But my wasteful and reckless brother, your youngest son, has done absolutely nothing.  I am better than him. I have earned your love, he hasn’t.”  In contrast, the younger son said to his father, “I have made a mess of my life, I have lost all the money you gave me, I have failed, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”  What was the father’s response to both?  It was this: “Neither of you have to earn my love.  It is free.  My love for you is gift, not achievement.  It is unconditional.”

We are all carrying a very deep wound within us.  It is the wound of conditional love.  This wound is the cause of our low self-esteem.  It makes us feel bad about ourselves.  It creates our negative attitudes towards others. It also has us believe that love is not free, that it has to be earned.  In the religion of Jesus God’s love is pure gift, offered without conditions and requirements. If we are taking Jesus seriously we need to stop trying to earn God’s love because we do not need to earn God’s love.  Jesus is adamant: “My Father’s love is not something that can be earned.  It is something that you just need to accept.  Let yourself be loved freely. If you don’t, you may end up arrogant like the Pharisee and angry like the elder son.”     

Only unconditional love can heal the wound of conditional love.  True religion is about exposing ourselves to the unconditional love of God.  This is the religion of Jesus.

I have heard it said that most people only use 10% of their talent.  This means that 90% of our potential lies dormant and unfulfilled.  If this is true it is certainly a sad and disturbing statistic.

Why do we fail to develop and use our God-given gifts and talents?  In The Parable of the Talents which we find in Matthew’s Gospel (25:14-30) Jesus seems to mention two reasons.  One is fear.  Fear is a very powerful emotional force in our lives.  It makes us cautious; it paralyses us; it prevents us from doing the things we know are good for us.  Someone once said to me that the devil has no power but fear. The devil uses fear to hold us back, to keep us from changing and growing.  The devil certainly uses fear to stop us developing our potential.  If there are fears in our lives it is important that we name what these fears are.  When we are willing and able to name our fears they lose much of their power over us.  It is with good reason that Jesus is constantly saying to us: “Have courage, do not be afraid. I am with you.”

The other reason for not developing and using our gifts and talents that is mentioned in the gospel parable is laziness.  What can we say about laziness?  It is certainly easier to make a case for fear than for laziness!  Laziness possibly comes from a lack of motivation and self-confidence.  It is also linked with poor self-discipline.  Significantly, we tend to have a negative reaction to the person who is lazy.  Perhaps this is because those who do not pull their weight offend our sense of justice.  But perhaps it is also because we do not like wasted talent.  It is awful to see talent going to waste because the person who has it just cannot be bothered.  The lazy servant who buried his talent in the ground in the gospel parable had it taken away from him and given to someone else who would use it.

In a welfare society it can become too easy for people not to use their gifts and talents.  There are people who genuinely need the benefits the State gives them, especially at particular times in their lives. But when dependency on State benefits becomes a way of life it tends to deaden initiative and bury much needed talent.

Of all religious symbols I think it is fair to say that the most familiar and perhaps most popular is the cross.  Christians are baptised with the sign of the cross.  They begin their prayer with the sign of the cross.  The cross is hung in church buildings and religious institutions.  It is placed on top of monuments and displayed in many of our homes.  It is even worn as a piece of jewellery around the neck and in the form of a broch.

So why does the cross have such significance for us?  To quote the words of a well-known song by the late Johnny Cash, ‘This thing called love.’ For Christians the cross is above all a symbol of love.  It is the symbol of the love we all hunger for, desire and need.

We cannot separate is the cross from love.  The cross makes no sense apart from love.  Jesus changed the cross from a symbol of failure and death to a symbol of victory and hope by his radical love.   Jesus lived by the ‘rule’ of love and he died in fidelity to this love.     

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).  These are perhaps the most quoted words of scripture, displayed in all sorts of places and for all sorts of gatherings.  The greatest and most powerful revelation of God’s love was the death of his own beloved Son on the cross.  The cross is the symbol of the unconditional love that God has for each and every human person.  As we gaze at the cross how could we doubt that we are infinitely loved, how could we refuse to accept that we are cherished, precious, valued?  Through the symbol of the cross God says to each one of us, “I love you.”   

Unconditional love is the greatest power in the world.  It has the power to motivate, to liberate, to heal, to transform.  It even has the power to change death into life.  The power of the cross is the power of unconditional love. This is why Jesus said, “When I am lifted up on the cross I will draw all people to myself” (John 12: 32).  It is why the followers of Jesus continue to find hope and comfort in the cross.  And it is why the cross will always be the most used and most popular religious symbol of all.

Lord Jesus, each time I bless myself with the sign of the cross may I remember that you love me personally, intimately and unconditionally.

Love is probably the most used word in our vocabulary.  It is also probably the most abused word.  When we are young we think that love is a nice feeling.  As we get older we come to see that love is also a decision and a commitment.

In the world of Jesus, love is indeed about affection and companionship.  But it is also about putting the needs of others before our own, at least sometimes. Charity, which is the way God loves, is loving others for their own sake, for their own good.  This is the love a Christian is asked to practice.  It is a love that often costs.

Of course in the world of Jesus love of God and love of neighbour cannot be separated.  They are both sides of the one coin.  One is an expression of the other; one the test of the other.  To love God is to love our neighbour and to love our neighbour is to love God.  Those who love their neighbour belong to the Kingdom of God whether they realise it or not.  This is why we cannot limit the Kingdom of God to a particular religion or church.

The Carmelite mystic, Saint John of the Cross, once said, “In the evening of life we will be examined in love.”  When we die the only thing we can take with us to God is the love in our hearts.  Everything else we must leave behind.  The love in our hearts is all that God will be interested in. 

The purpose of life is to learn the art of loving.  Perhaps this is what William Blake meant when he wrote, “We are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.” Perhaps too it is what we are being invited to acknowledge and accept during this painful time in our history when the coronavirus is spreading across the world.

Jesus is an immortal diamond.  There are so many sides to him, so many ways of seeing him and of understanding the meaning of his life and mission. But no matter how we chose to understand Jesus we can never separate him from his Father.  The life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth only make sense when seen in relation to God the Father, the one Jesus called Abba.  The Father is not just the best prism for gazing at Jesus.  He is the only prism.

There are many reasons why Jesus was sent into the world by the Father.  Here are three:

Firstly, Jesus is the one who reveals the Father.  St John the Evangelist writes: “No one has ever seen God.  It is the only Son who is nearest to the Father’s heart who has made him known” (John 1:18).  Jesus, the Father’s Beloved Son, has first-hand experience of the Father.  He knows the Father personally and intimately.  He knows who the Father is. He knows the contours of the Father’s heart and he knows the love that the Father has for humanity.  There is no one better ‘qualified’ to reveal the Father than Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus is the one who leads us to the Father’s house; he shows us how to find our way back home.   This is what he means when he says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  In the Letter to the Hebrews Jesus is described as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (see 12:2).  He is the one who leads us in our faith and brings it to completion.  If we did not have the guidance of Jesus we would find ourselves wandering around in a wilderness, lost and confused.  Jesus is our compass.  It is he who keeps us focused on our destination. And our destination is the house of the Father, the place where we will know that we are accepted, cherished and safe.

Finally, Jesus is our companion. Not only does he show us the way to the Father’s house, he also accompanies us on our journey there.  Jesus is not a detached authority figure who tells us what to do from a distance.  He is our brother who walks alongside us.  In the Incarnation Jesus made himself one with us.  He entered into solidarity with us, sharing our joys and our sorrows, our successes and our failures, our hopes and our fears.  And because of his resurrection Jesus continues to be present to us and in us as our invisible companion. On our journey home to the Father’s house we have the faithful friendship of Jesus.