Bread of Life – October
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
In these words, St. John summarizes the Gospel: God loves us and sent His Son for our salvation. In His love for us – especially through the manifestation of His love – God teaches us to love like He loves. How does God love us? What does it mean for us to love like God loves?
St. John points us toward an answer: We did not love God, but God loved us. God initiates. To love as God loves is to love before such love is fulfilled in reciprocity. To love like God is to love like a mother loves her child – she loves her child long before her child can return her love. Yet, she anticipates her child’s love. Likewise, God anticipates our response to Him.
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.”
1 John 4:9-10
The anticipation of our response is essential to God’s love. In anticipating, God waits. God does not force us to love Him; He does not manipulate us. He waits for us. This is how love is made manifest: one who loves waits for the beloved, anticipates the maturity of the beloved, fosters the capacity of the beloved to respond in freedom. Love’s waiting is active and attentive, seeking how to serve the beloved without extinguishing opportunities to grow.
Thus do we understand God’s choice of where and when to send His Son into the world. Thus also do we understand the manner of Christ’s coming: He came humbly, as a child in a manger, not to overwhelm us with His glory, but to serve us, to heal us, and to invite us to respond to Him in freedom and love. He sees in us what we will become. He suffered and died to bring His Father’s love to fulfillment. He sent His Holy Spirit to build us up, to protect our freedom, and to lead us to a maturity and reciprocity, unknown to us now, that we will enjoy eternally.
We pray: Lord, help us to love like You: show us Your will; restrain us in our impatience; and guide us ever toward the freedom and maturity and reciprocity in Your love that You have prepared for us from eternity.
“Love looks to the eternal”
(Deus Caritas Est §6).
Ben Martin
CiV co-ordinator of reflections
Ben, his wife Amelja, and their son Peter live in Tampa, FL, USA.