GOD IS LOVE
"God is love"
"God is love" is a direct quote from two different biblical passages: 1 John 4: 8 and 1 John 4:16. However, there are many other Scriptures that express this truth-which describes the essence of God's nature-in a different way.
Some examples are John 3:16 (another much quoted verse): "For God so loved the world ..."; John 16:27: "for the Father himself loves you" and 1 John 3: 1, where the apostle John also tells us about God's love saying: "Look at what love the Father has given us".
And these are just a small sample of many Scriptures that reiterate this fundamental characteristic of the nature of God. God is love, and expresses his love for us in different ways.
What does "God is love" mean? Experts have tried to explain it by describing God as "pure goodness" (Barnes Biblical Commentary). Or, as we read in the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary: "God is fundamental and essentially LOVE: not simply loving."
However, no expert tells us about God's purpose - what his nature, love, has motivated him to do. And, in fact, the purpose for which he created us is the greatest expression of his love for humanity.
THE LOVE OF GOD IS A MYSTERY
Perhaps the deepest, the most unfathomable, the most incomprehensible, because it is the very essence of God: God is love! It is an unfathomable love because it has a depth that no one can fully fathom; it has a height that no one can fully climb; It has a length and width that nobody can measure completely. God is love, his essence is love ... not that he only loves us, but that he is love. In Him everything is love; there is nothing that is not love; your Being is love; all your inner activity is love; all its external acts are love. He does nothing but love and love to the extreme ... Love infinitely, love immutably, love eternally, love faithfully and mercifully.
This love of God is the ultimate cause of all that exists, is the ultimate cause of everything that happens, is the ultimate cause of our existence. That is why at the end of so many laps that the human heart gives in search of its happiness, of its fulfillment, of its fullness, like the Israelites in the desert, one day it comes to realize, like them, that the promised land He was so close, because the happiness and the fullness of man is to know that he is loved by God, to know that he is loved by his Father and Creator.
Although we can not penetrate this mystery in totality, God wants us to know that we are loved, because this knowledge causes a deep healing in the heart of man. Knowing and living in this love is the fullness of the human heart. As St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:17: "That, rooted and grounded in love, you may understand the breadth and length, the height and the depth of the love of Christ, which exceeds all knowledge, and so you are filled with the fullness of God. " Only in God and in the intimate knowledge of his love is that man finds his peace, his fulfillment, his fulfillment, his relief, his deepest rest. "Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest." (Mt 11:28). St. Augustine prayed: "Oh, God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts will remain restless until they can find rest in you."
IN THIS WAY, THE FATHER LOVES US
John 3:16: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life."
I read one day this story that caused me a deep pain and made me catch a little of the feelings of God the Father. "In the world the news is spread that a terrible epidemic began to develop in a village in India. No one gives much importance, but in a few days it is read in the newspapers that millions of people died and the disease has already begun to spread to neighboring countries. US Disease Control personnel immediately traveled to India to investigate the epidemic that was already known as the "mysterious influence," and soon, faced with the negative results of the experts, European countries decided to close their borders and cancel all air flights with contact with the affected countries. But it was too late, because the news announced that a woman died in a French hospital. A few days later, the incurable disease devastated almost all of Europe and began to cause severe damage in the United States, a country that immediately closed its borders and canceled all international flights.
The world panicked and the disease quickly invaded almost the entire planet. Everyone, even in the smallest neighborhood, is alarmed by the fear that exists before the possibility of acquiring the disease. All scientists work nonstop, to find the antidote. But nothing, all the effort is vain. Suddenly, a group of scientists manages to decipher the DNA code of the virus and can prepare the cure for the disease. This requires the blood of someone who has not been infected with the virus, so all citizens are asked to go to hospitals for a blood test.
A man goes to volunteer with his family along with other neighbors, wondering what will stop all that and if the end has come. Suddenly, a doctor comes out shouting a name. He says: "What?" And yells the same name again, the youngest of his children, who is at your side, grabs his jacket and says: "Dad, that's my name!" Before he can react, the doctors picked up his son and explained that his child's blood is clean, pure and they want to make sure he does not have the disease. After five long minutes, the doctors and nurses leave. One of them, who seems older, approaches and thanks him, because his child's blood is clean; It is perfect to elaborate the antidote and eradicate the "mysterious influence".
The news begins to run everywhere, and everyone is shouting, praying, laughing with happiness. However, the doctor again approaches this man and asks him to sign to authorize the use of the child's blood. When reading the contract, he realizes that they left blank the amount of blood they need to take. He raises his eyes and asks how much blood they will need. The doctor's smile disappears and he replies: "We did not think it was going to be a child, we were not prepared, so we'll need it all!"
You can not believe it and try to answer: "But ... but ..." The doctor keeps insisting: "You do not understand. We are talking about the whole world. Please, sign We need it all. " He asks if he can have a blood transfusion, but the doctor tells him that there is no clean blood to do so and insist that he sign. Silently, and unable to feel his fingers holding the pen in his hand, he signs it. They ask if you want to spend a moment alone with your child before starting the process. Walk to the emergency room where your child is sitting on the bed. The child asks what is happening. The father takes his hand and tells him that he loves him more than ever and that he knows he will be with him
forever. The doctor comes back and asks him to leave the child; It's time to start, since people all over the world are dying. The man walks away, turning his back on his son, while he says: "Dad ... why are you leaving me, why have you abandoned me?"
The following week, during the ceremony to honor his son, the father observes that there are few people; many of them preferred to stay home at night; others did not arrive because they prefer to go fishing or watch a football game, and others come with a vain smile and pretending that they care. I would like to stand up and shout: "My son died for you. What do not they care? " Maybe that's what HE wants to say: "My son died so you could be saved."
Is not that tear that we saw falling at the moment Christ died on the cross, in the movie "The Passion", the tear of the Father who gave his only Son to save us?
Yes, brothers, God loves us so much ... he loves us with Father's love and in this our existence consists: in discovering his love ... love that is the happiness of the human heart, love that is his healing, love that is his fullness. Love that is the only thing that moves all things, love that moves history, our personal history and that of the world ... We discover our history in the light of its love, we bring today our past, present and future history to the infinite ocean of His merciful, faithful, infinite, eternal and immutable love. What misery you can have that is not a simple drop in this ocean! The love of God is the only one that guarantees the happiness of the human heart; He is the only one who restores all things; He is the only one who can make us rest and trust. Let's spend our lives (like Mary Magdalene) contemplating the width, length, height and depth of this love. May this contemplation lead us to a profound healing of our being, because God is love. And after a long journey, of so many forgetfulness, rebellions, abandonment and contempt that we have done against that love ... in the end we also say as St. Augustine: "Oh, God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts will remain restless until may they find rest in you.
PSALM 103
2 Bless, my soul, the Lord, * and do not forget any of its benefits.
3 He forgives all your iniquities, * and heals all your ailments.
4 He redeems your life from the grave, * and crowns you with favor and mercy.
5 He satisfies your desires with good, * and as the eagle your youth is renewed.
6 The Lord does justice, * and defends all the oppressed.
8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
9 He will not accuse us forever, * nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He has not treated us according to our sins, * nor has he paid us according to our iniquities.
11 As the heavens are lifted up on the earth, * so his mercy rises on his faithful ones.
12 As far as the east of the west is, * so far away from us our rebellions.
13 As a father cares for his children, * so does the Lord take care of those who worship him;
14 Because He knows what we are made of; * remembers that we are nothing but mud.
17 But the mercy of the Lord endures forever.