Lectio
“I’m not perfect. I’m not okay. But I am loved.”
— Fr. Mike Schmitz, Catholic Mass 101: Every Part of the Mass and What It Means
Meditatio
So often, our acceptance of God’s will is the result of suffering. It’s the result of wandering about in the wilderness of self-will until, out of food, drink, and hope, and accepting our errors, our shortcomings, and our turning away from God, we turn back to him for help.
We cry out and confess our self-imposed brokenness. We ask for mercy — for shelter, nourishment, and rest — and we come to find that, even in our unfaithfulness, the Lord is always faithful. We come to find that, even this time, he loves us and has always loved us, that our turning away is met with more love, not less, because God’s love pours out, in and upon us, regardless of what we do or do not do.
We are powerless to make God stop loving us, for God himself is unable to cease loving us. In the Father, through Christ, we find a gift that has always been given, is presently being given, and will never cease being given freely to us as the very gift that sustains us through both our joy and our grief, our pleasure and our pain, and our acceptance and our denial of that very gift.
This gift — the bread of life, the living water, the light of the world — is the very shelter, nourishment, and rest we long for, if only we acknowledge our need and consent to receive it. God knows we are not perfect, and he loves us in our imperfection. He knows we are not okay, and in what ways, and he loves us in our brokenness. God loves us because God is love and we are his beloved, from before creation to beyond the final resurrection.
Oratio
for the love
that defies logic
reason
and all understanding
that knows no beginning
or end
limitation
or restriction
that is freely offered
without condition
or compulsion
or imposition
that we cannot deserve
or earn
or exhaust
that cannot be undone
for this love
may we surrender
to be transformed
and resurrected for love
Contemplatio
Is there an imperfection, a mistake, or a shortcoming you still believe is keeping you from God’s unconditional love?
Related Scripture
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:38–39
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like He Loved Us First: God’s Prevenient Love and the Welcome That Never Ends, which explores how God’s love was always prior to our response — the prevenient gift that drew us before we ever knew to turn back.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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