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Third Week of Advent - Thursday
December 16, 2004
Though the mountains leave their place
And the hills be shaken,
My love shall never leave you
Nor my covenant of peace be shaken.
Isaiah 54: 10
Truth and Consequences
Thoughtful men and women struggle in good faith over many moral and social issues today. Many seek to know God's truth, to adhere to it faithfully, and bring it to bear on the issues of the day. They strive to live by authentic faith-based values, but on hardly any issue can they reach a consensus.
But one faith-based truth is beyond doubt. God has revealed it over and over again from ancient times, and it has never changed. It is this: God's love for man is without end. The vast ranges of mountains will be picked up and moved from their foundations before God will forsake us.
Of all God's truths, this is the easiest to understand but the hardest to live by. It is the simplest of truths. God created us to love us. Our very coming into being is a covenant of love. God gives us his unchanging word that he will never go back on this covenant. No matter what, he will always love us.
But this wonderful truth of God's love has many consequences. And it is living with the consequences of God's love that makes up the long, arduous journey of faith.
First of all, God's love demands that we empty ourselves of everything else, even die to ourselves, so we can be perfected by love. This is what makes the greatest gift we could ever ask for the hardest thing to accept. Everything we cling to gets in the way of love. The life of faith is a gradual letting go of everything that prevents us from receiving God's love. When we are completely empty, we will begin to see what we really hunger for, and we will find that it has been there all along.
Love's second consequence has to do with our brothers and sisters. If I wish to belong to God, I must love what God loves. God holds every one of his children in his heart with the same unconditional love he has for me. Love must be inclusive or it is not love at all. His love is for all of us a covenant of peace. We can grow in our capacity to receive God's love only when we open ourselves to the sometimes painful task of loving others.
God our Father, so great is your love for us that you gave us your Son, who became man and laid down his life to establish a new covenant of love. May we follow his example in reaching out to our brothers and sisters, and be one day united in heaven in the eternal covenant of peace.
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