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Tag: Love of Christ

  • ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE

    ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE

    October 20, 2022 – Thursday 29th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102022.cfm)

    Do we long to be confident, to have a strong inner-self and to be stable in our relationships? We know that we all experience different hardships and difficulties that could shake us, terrify us and bring us into desperation. Aside from family problems, internal-personal conflicts, love-life heartbreaks, work-related issues, we could also suffer from societal concerns such poverty, injustice, abuses, corruption, persecution and oppression. As we experience one or more of these issues and concerns, we desire to overcome and outgrow these. Such desire must have come also from our inner desire to live life well and fully with our community.

    This was the prayer and the longing for Paul expressed in his letter to the Ephesians. To be confident, to be secured in our relationships and to have a strong inner self, is to be rooted and grounded in love, as Paul has told us. Yes, Paul reminded and called the Christians in Ephesus because of the threat of being carried away by the evils and corruption of the political powers in the city of Ephesus. The Christians seemed to be overwhelmed by this problem in their community. Thus, Paul’s intervention was to bring them closer again to that love of Christ who is their true power and strength as a Christian community. Indeed, it is only in being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and for one another, that each one’s inner self is to be filled with all the fullness of God.

    What does Paul mean then of being rooted? Paul used this image that we find in nature as the roots of a tree makes one to find nourishment, stability, and source of abundance. This is how Paul invites us to be rooted in the love of Christ so that we may take root in that love and find what truly nourishes us, what is truly constant as well as finding abundance of grace.

    As roots take time to go deeper into the soil and find the abundance of life, let us also allow ourselves to take our roots in our relationship with Christ by being faithful in our prayers, by seeking the grace in our sacraments, and by being supported by the company of our friends and community.

    What does Paul also mean of being grounded? Paul employed the image like that of a building that finds strength and balance by being grounded on a firm foundation. Paul reminds us also to make the love of Christ as the very foundation of our inner self, of our relationships and of everything that we do and we have.

    As a good building grounds itself on a good foundation, let us also allow ourselves to be grounded in that constant and unconditional love of Jesus for us. Though we are all underserving, yet, the Lord desires to love us that we may have the fullness of God in our life. Let us be grounded in the love of Christ by being fully embracing that love and not doubting it, by being loving ourselves and not just murmur about it, and by being convinced of this love and not just thinking about it intellectually. Kabay pa.

  • LOVE IS THE FULLNESS OF GOD

    LOVE IS THE FULLNESS OF GOD

    June 11, 2021 – Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061121.cfm)

    In the Book of Prophet Hosea, we have been presented with an image of God as a parent and as a healer. Hosea beautifully captures these images of God who only fills with love His child, Israel. God’s love, indeed, nurtures and heals, builds and forgives. Such way of loving from God is written in the whole Scripture that is why we are always reminded how God calls us again and again through love.

    This is best described in the Responsorial Psalm today taken from the Book of Isaiah. The Prophet expresses his confidence in God because he has experienced with God the love that gives strength and courage. God’s presence is water that fills and satisfies our empty heart, quenches the thirst in us for love and support.

    In the same confidence, Paul also reminds the Ephesians of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. This is love beyond idea or any ideology, but this is in its most concrete expression of love that sacrifices oneself for the sake of the beloved. This is love that gives life. This is how Paul affirms that the love of Christ truly fills us because love is the fullness of God.

    In that fullness of God, God only desires to share that love that will fill every empty but insecure and fearful heart. This is how the Gospel of John reveals to us the physical and literal overflowing of blood and water from the pierced heart of Jesus. The soldier who thrusted his lance into the side of Jesus witnessed this.

    The seemingly dead body of Jesus, flowed out blood and water which only gives life and joy, satisfies emptiness and also nurtures and heals, builds and forgives. This tells us that even when Jesus was being hurt, the Lord continues to bring out his love and only love.

    This is the very message of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This Solemnity is not a mere worshipping of an organ, “the heart” per se, but of Jesus himself who constantly showed us the love of God spoken about in the Scriptures.

    There are two invitations for us today.

    First. Be filled by that love of Christ. His love only brings fullness in us. Thus, learn to be confident in his love! Be overwhelmed by his love! Seek his love that will satisfy our every hunger and thirst for love and intimacy, for acceptance and support.

    Second. Learn from his way of loving. Let our expression of love to truly give life. Let our love nurtures immaturity, builds the confidence of the fearful, heals the brokenhearted and in pain, forgives the sinner and does not plant hate and violence. Hinaut pa.