GOD'S REVELATION OF HIS LOVE
)_20240504_231244_0000.jpg)
SUNDAY, Sixth Week of Eastertide
Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP
Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48; Ps 98:1-4;
1 Jn 4:7-10; Jn 15:9-17
God’s revelation of his Love
While on his mission here on earth, the Lord
remained in the love of his Father because he put his Father’s will first
before any other thing. What helped him to keep his Father’s will first was his
knowledge of the Father’s love for him. Love is the greatest driving
force or motivation to do any work. But true love builds on knowledge. Hence,
the foundation of Jesus’ love for the Father is his knowledge of his Father.
The knowledge of the Father is the Son in Eternity. The Son of Man is
hypostatically united with the Eternal Word and has the infusion of the
knowledge of the Father as a man would. As a man, he still made an act of faith
because his consciousness was predominantly that of man due to the human nature
he assumed. This is why he received the Spirit as man and
not as God. Because he has the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he also
experienced the love of the Father in which he lived by the fact of the
anointing. Thus, he says: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.
Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just
as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
From the above,
it is clear that he experienced this love of the Father as a man and believed
in that love. Thus, his remaining in the will of the Father was meritorious. This would
not be the case if he had the knowledge of the Father and knew the will of the
Father as the Son of God. Then he would not receive the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit in time, for that is eternally the case. Therefore, he uses his
experience to encourage us since his experience is comparable to ours. He knew
and experienced his Father’s love as the Son of Man and remained steadfast to
his will equally as man. Since the Father’s will for his incarnation, as man
has to do with our salvation, the life of the Son of Man becomes the sacrament
of the will of the Father and the love of the Father for us. By his steadfastness
to the will of the Father through knowledge of the Father’s love, he revealed
to us the love of the Father and his will for our salvation. The commandment of
the Father and the love of the Father now pass to us through his life and word.
He showed us the love of the Father through his death for us. “A man can have
no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.”
We have
experienced his love for us which opens us to the love of the Father. His life
reveals the Father’s love for us; this love is nothing less than his love for
his Son. This equality of love is most evident in the fact that he gave us the
same Holy Spirit that he gave His Son in his human nature. This was
the cause of the apostles’ amazement when the Gentiles received the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. “While Peter was
still speaking the Holy Spirit came down on all the listeners. Jewish believers
who had accompanied Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit
should be poured out on the pagans too, since they could hear them speaking
strange languages and proclaiming the greatness of God.” God loved us to the extent of giving us the same
anointing he gave his Son Jesus Christ. The love of God poured out is
what St. John ruminated on in his first letter. “My dear people, let us love one another since love
comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.” We also see the dignity of the Virgin Mary and the
grace which unites us with her in divine love. Mary conceived the love of God
when she understood the gift God the Father gave man in the child she conceived.
She loves more than any of us because she knows God more than us.
)_20240318_002227_0000.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment