THE SCHOOL OF DIVINE LOVE


FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER   

Acts 15:22-31; Ps 57:8-12; Jn 15:12-17

The Structures of Divine Love

We have often explained the infinite goodness of God, as displayed in the entire creation, which God intends to be our first school of divine goodness, teaching us the right attitude and willingness of creatures to obey the divine order and will. We do not learn the initial lesson from the created reality due to our inattentiveness to God, creatures, the created order, people around us, and even to our true selves. In his infinite wisdom, God did not stop at surrounding us with the orderly creation; he ordained that each of us come to life through a family. The family is not just an orderly structure for supporting life, but also a cradle of love and providence for a new life. Coming from a family, each of us is received into a loving environment, cared for, as we grow and mature into loving and responsible individual persons. The love and care we receive in our families are to prepare and introduce us to the providential care of God in creation and in the society we live in. So sad that the beautiful structure that God provided for the well-being of each of us, as we have described above, has been defaced by individual and collective sins. Blinded by sin, we barely see the order and beauty in God’s creation and his providence for us. This case is that we are blind, and lead others blindly into ditches and wells. We are wounded and inflict others with serious wounds.

The Eternal Word of God assumed our human nature and lived among us to restore our sight, to heal us, and the defaced creation. He became the Son of Man because of the problem within man, that he may administer personal healing to each of us. Our healing would require that we swallow the divine medications. Just as bitter, but healthy, medications are usually sugar-coated, the bitter and difficult divine remedies are coated with divine love and compassion to help us take them with ease. His appearance in our nature is for the purpose of attracting and holding our attentions through the love of God so munificently displayed for us by the Son of Man. He lived among us and displayed a unique providential love and care for our well-being. His words and works demonstrated the Father’s loving gesture and willingness to bring us back into his family and communion. His death on the cross proved the sinfulness of sin and the darkness of death, which is the fruit of sin. He rose to prove to us that our enslavement has ended with his own death. These are gestures of love beyond which there are no stronger or more convincing ones, according to the Lord. “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I shall not call you servants any more, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.” This revelation of love is in continuation of the one he made in the orderly creation of the world for us.

The revelation is about the holiness and orderliness of the Father’s will for us. The will of God is full of love and providence for us, his own children. Its purpose is to bring us to be like him in holiness. The end or purpose of our spiritual renewal is that we may now learn to eat of our heavenly prepared food and delicate wine. The will of God is our heavenly food and drink; Jesus Christ presents his flesh as our food and his blood as drink to bring us to understand our need to feed on him. We eat him by focusing on his life, words, and deeds that would transform us into him. He gives us his Holy Spirit to lead us into the mystery of his life, death, and resurrection. Death is contained therein because of our corrupted selves. The spiritual food will bring our sinful life to death, but will restore our spiritual life and sight. If we don’t eat of him, we would not be transformed into him, and we would not speak or witness for him. If we love something, we devote our time, minds, and hearts to that thing; with time, we know such a thing deeply and speak freely about it. Love becomes our nature when we feed frequently on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church and the Holy Spirit decided the necessity and sufficiency of the heavenly food for our salvation in the Council of Jerusalem. “It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, form the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.”

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, we pray, that, being rightly conformed to the paschal mysteries, what we celebrate in joy may protect and save us with perpetual power. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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