The warmth of God’s love is related to our nearness to the Son!
Homily originally presented May 9, 2021
by Monsignor Deering
I had a lunch meeting at a Restaurant that a TV off in the corner.
I glanced up at it a few times whenever someone at our table would say,
“News Flash!” and sure enough in the corner of the Screen it said Breaking News and scrolling across the bottom of the screen was a description of
some breaking news that they wanted their viewers to know about.
Well, imagine that you’re watching TV and the Breaking News icon comes up and the message reads: “God loves Satan as much as he loves the Blessed Mother!”
What would you think? No way ... this had to be a mistake!
What would you do? Shout “heresy” and demand they turn the TV off.
“God loves Satan as much as he loves the Blessed Mother!”
Would that be ... breaking news?
- Would that be new news to you?
- And if it was old news to you ... it would certainly be new news to the world.
We all know who Satan is ... he lives apart from God and he works against God.
We all know who Blessed Mother is ... she lives at the right hand of Jesus in
Heaven and she always says yes to God.
They’re total opposites when it comes to co-habiting and co-operating with God.
So how could it be that God loves them both the same?
To explore this, let’s begin with the definition of God ...
we just heard in our Second Reading.
There, St. John tells us clearly and simply that ... “God is love.”
Well if that’s true ... if God is love ... then actually all He can do ... is love.
If the essence of God is Love ... then His existence is Love.
If God is love itself ... then all he can do ... is love!
And so, the Breaking News ...
that God loves Satan as much as the Blessed Mother ... would be true.
Satan is evil ... and the Blessed Mother is without sin?
Yet God loves them both the same.
Yes, God loves every creature whether we accept and appreciate His love or not!
All of us are loved by God.
But the way we use our Free Will determines whether ...
we get to experience His love or not.
If we draw close to God ... we will be warmed by His love.
But if we turn away from God ... we will grow cold without it.
To help you understand this ... consider the Sun in the sky.
It’s a mighty star that radiates light and heat out in all directions.
9 planets revolve around the Sun in our Solar System.
Mercury, being the closest planet to the Sun...experiences extremely hot temperatures.
The surface temperature there is 800°F!
Earth the 3rd planet ... being further away from the Sun ...
has a surface temperature of 60° F.
And Pluto, the 9th planet ... being furthest away from the Sun ...
has the frigid surface temperature of -390° F!
It’s the same Sun shining on all 9 planets ...
but they each experience its warmth to different degrees....
depending on their nearness to it.
Now, think of Jesus in the center ... with all creatures revolving around Him.
And picture the Son being like the Sun, radiating Light and Love to all around Him.
Well, with the Blessed Mother seated at Jesus’ right hand,
she would benefit by being nearest to the Love that Jesus releases to all
and her heart would be on fire with the Love of God.
While, Satan, who’s been thrown out of Heaven,
he would be farthest away from the Love God releases to all ...
and his soul would be frigid cold ... yet burned as by dry ice!
You know Realtors say there’s 3 key things to consider in choosing where to live ...
location ... location ... location!
Yes, location is everything ...in both the physical world and ... the spiritual world.
Because the nearer you are to God ... the better it is for you!
God’s love is being poured out on all ...
and blessed are those who position themselves to receive it!
How much love is God making available to us?
Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.”
Wow!
Jesus is saying that He loves us on the same level that The Father loves Him!
Remember the Sun in the sky ... it has one status ... it’s on!
There are no days where it’s half on ... or ¾ on ... it’s just on!
And there aren’t any days where the Sun is off ... no, it’s on all the time!
And so it is with God in the way He radiates Love ...
He has one status ... on ... He is “on” ... radiating His love ... all the time!
God, who is love ... is radiating love ... to every creature ... all the time.
And so ... to say that that God loves Satan as much as the Blessed Mother ...
is not heresy … it’s the truth!
We are not the Blessed Mother ... nor are we the devil ...
We are His children ... journeying through this life on our way to Heaven ...
and how wonderful to know ... that we are loved!
We are loved with the love that the Father has for His Divine Son, Jesus!
God wants us to know this!
In the 4 verses, of our Second Reading, we heard the word love … 9 times!
In the 9 verses of our Gospel Reading we heard the word love … another 9 times!
It’s as if God is saying, “Did you get it?” “Did you get my message?”
“I love you!””Do you know that I love you?”
“I loved you first.””I loved you into existence and I want to love you in eternity.
“I love you now and I always will.”
All of us long to be loved ... well, hear those words coming to you ... from God!
The reason that God loves us is because “love” is his very nature.
Remember learning English Grammar back in 4th Grade and the Teacher said
that the little word “is” is like an “Equals Sign”.
what’s on one side ... is equal to ... what’s on the other side.
The Sun is bright ... means The Sun ... equals ... bright.
And God is love …means God ... equals ... love.
And so if ... God is Love ... then all He can do is love!
Let me share an experience that may help you understand this.
One day as I was learning to drive in my Dad’s car. I had stopped at a red-light but I wasn’t holding my foot on the brake hard enough and our car was creeping forward and was going to tap the car in front of me, so my dad yelled stop ...
and I immediately pressed harder on the brake and stopped the car without bumping.
My dad could see that I was embarrassed and he said something pretty profound,
“The car was only doing what it was designed to do.”
And he was absolutely right!
You see, it wasn’t the car’s fault that it was creeping forward ...
it was designed to move unless stopped by the brake.
It was only doing what it was designed to do …
It was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.
And it’s the same with God.
In God loving us, He’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to do … for God is love!
And, if God is love, then all He can do is love!
That means that God loves us when we’re good and God loves us when we’re bad.
It means that God loves those who love Him ... and God loves those who hate Him.
God loves everyone, because that’s his nature. God is love!
Consider this, God loves you ... just the way you are!
It’s not like you have to change and be some other way for God to love you.
No, He loves you right now ... just the way you are.
You know, I can remember many times in my younger days ...
praying that God would love me.
That’s the very reason that I wanted to be good, so that God would love me.
I didn’t understand this great truth that God already loves me and He always will!
God’s love for me and for you is unconditional … it’s not based on what we do.
We have God’s love now ...
The question is, are we experiencing His love?
Using the analogy of the Planets and the Sun ...
are we being warmed in our orbit ... or are we far out and freezing to death?
The Light and Warmth of the Sun is always on.
- the Planets closest to it experience more of its light and warmth
- the Planets furthest from it experience less of its light and warmth.
So the question to ask is: What orbit am I following in my life?
- am I living close to Jesus,
- or am I living away from Jesus,
Jesus is the Son ... S-O-N ... the Son of God. He’s the source of all Light & Love!
The closer you get to Him, the more you’re able to experience his love!
The further you get from Him, the less you’re able to experience His love.
What does Jesus want?
He wants us to be close to Him ... now ... so we can be close to Him ... forever.
How do we do that?
Jesus tells us today, “This I command you: love one another.”
If we do this ... if we just strive to do this ... then we draw close to Him.
Then, we are living in a nearness that enables us to experience the special closeness of Holy Communion! yes, if we’re not far away in mortal sin we can receive Him.
Recall from last week,
that Jesus doesn’t just desire to be with us ... He wants to be in us!
Twice in our Gospel today, Jesus says, “Remain in my love.”
And if God is Love ... then He’s really saying ... remain in Me!
The closer that we unite ourselves with God ...
by following his commands ... and receiving Him in Holy Communion,
the more we’re able to experience the love that He is constantly raining down on us.
But when we go our own way ... that leads away from God and His commands ...
the less we’re able to experience His love ... and if we stay outside His orbit long enough ... our hearts will grow cold and our souls will die.
If we don’t make it to Heaven ...it won’t be because God didn’t love us.
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that God doesn’t love them any more!
That’s a lie.
God loves all of us ... everywhere and always ... for God is love!
You know, as we celebrate Mother’s Day this year ...
many of us can reflect on the fact that our Mom’s loved us all the time ...
they loved us when we were good ... and they loved us when we were bad.
Moms and Dads both do this ... but Moms have a special maternal connection.
How many Moms continued to love their children ...
even when they went far away from God and family and society ...
and perhaps fell into a life of addiction or crime.
There was Mom ... praying for them to come home or come back to Church.
There was Mom ... tending to them sick or injured in the hospital.
There was Mom ... visiting them in Jail or in Prison or in Re-Hab.
There was Mom ... standing by them in Court.
Mom loved us even when we were unlovable ...
because Moms seem to know as God knows ...
that we need love the most ... when we deserve it the least!
Well, if Moms can love us this faithfully with their imperfect love ...
we trust that God can love us even more faithfully with his Perfect love!
Today, let’s give thanks for the truth that we don’t have to earn God’s love!
We’ve got His love. He loves us in our goodness and in our sinfulness.
He loves us just the way we are!
But He loves us too much to leave us apart ...so He calls us to live in His love.
Remember, if God is love, then all He can do is love! Don’t you love it?
Comments
There are no comments yet - be the first one to comment: