BECOMING CHANNELS OF GOD'S LOVE

THURSDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Cor 8:1-7,11-13; Ps 139:1-3,13-14,23-24; Lk 6:27-38

Give, and there will be Gifts for You

The humanly impossible religious demands our Lord Jesus Christ makes of us set Christianity apart from other human- or earth-originated religions. The divine precept to give without reservation is another way of demanding that we be perfect like our heavenly Father. The Son of Man did not just make the demand on us by mere words; he lived out the demand of love. The precept of charity is impossible with human strength or natural resources; thus, the Lord states that salvation is impossible from a human point of view and strength. But it is possible from God’s point of view. Hence, the demand to love all, friends and enemies, is another way to demand that we focus on God and not on creatures. To love as the Lord demands, we must never focus on the persons, but on God and his love for us. Our interior focus on God, as revealed to us by Jesus Christ, opens our hearts to receive the outpouring of divine love, which is an inexhaustible fount of love. If we continuously receive the outpouring of love from the infinite divine resource, for God is love, loving our neighbours makes us channels of divine love. The stream of God’s love flows through us to all we encounter for their redemption.

What we are demanded to give is not really ours, but what we have received from God our Father through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is exactly what Saint Paul wants us to understand when he explains some people's attachment to idols. “And even if there were things called gods, either in the sky or on earth—where there certainly seem to be ‘gods’ and ‘lords’ in plenty—still for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come and through whom we exist.” All things come to us through Jesus Christ from God the Father, and he commands us to give without reservation, just as he gives us without reservation all that he receives from the Father. He confirms our need to focus on God for perfection in love, when he explains that knowledge of creatures puffs us up, and prevents us from becoming divine channels. “We all have knowledge; yes, that is so, but knowledge gives self-importance—it is love that makes the building grow. A man may imagine he understands something, but still not understand anything in the way that he ought to. But any man who loves God is known by him.” Our focus on God and love for God connect us to him as channels of divine love.

Because we are accustomed to the world and its ways of knowing and loving, we relate to creatures as idols and follow the idolatrous life of worldly people. What Paul said about eating food sacrificed to idols also applies to our interactions with the things of the world. “Some people, however, do not have this knowledge. There ae some who have been long used to idols that they eat this food as though it really had been sacrificed to the idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled by it.” The Son of Man offers us the knowledge of God the Father; he demands our total allegiance to accomplish the Father’s will through and with us. “I say this to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly.” We cannot fulfil these demands without interior life and focus on Jesus Christ. The Psalmist illustrates interior prayer for us. “O Lord, you search me and you know me, you know my resting and my rising, you discern my purpose from afar. You mark when I walk or lie down, all my ways lie open to you.” Therefore, God knows our idolatrous attachment to self and possessions, but it is revealed to us only when we walk interiorly, focusing on Jesus Christ. To free us he commands us: “Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the measure you measure out is the amount you will be given back.” Only advancement in prayerful communion with God gives us this grace.

Let us pray: O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters, that those who believe in Christ may receive true freedom and an everlasting inheritance. 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.