Saturday, July 23, 2011

In the beginning...

Since this is my first post, I think it's appropriate to start "in the beginning." No, I'm not talking about Genesis, where "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Even before that. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Even before creation, from all eternity, there was Jesus, the Word of God. And the Word was God. Jesus is God. I'm sure all of you recognize that fact, but have you ever really considered what it means? It means that only a few verses later, when "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14), it was God who chose to give up His infinite majesty to live as a lowly human in a life of poverty. It was God who chose to make Himself totally dependent on Mary until He could take care of Himself. It was God who chose to die on a cross, who allowed himself to endure unimaginable sufferings as He was beaten and mocked, crowned with thorns, betrayed by one of His closest friends, denied by another, abandoned by all but one of the rest, nailed to the cross, and forsaken by His Father; It was God who endured all of this to offer eternal life to each one of us, knowing that each of us would reject Him again and again through our sins. It is God Himself who invites every one of us to be fully united to Him in Holy Communion every day. If any man had done this for us, we would surely be extremely grateful, and do everything we could to repay him for saving our life. Why should we give any less when it is God who gives to us? On the contrary, we should give much more, since God's life is much more valuable than any man's, and He deserves infinitely more than we can possibly give Him. So what should our response be? It is very simple: we just give Him whatever He asks for. And what does He ask us to do? "Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love...This is my commandment: love one another as I love you" (John 15:9-12). God only asks for one thing: love. Who are we to refuse Him?

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