Lectio
“Lord, you return gladly and lovingly to lift up the one who offends you, but I do not turn to raise and honor the one who annoys me.”
— St. John of the Cross, Sayings of Light and Love
Meditatio
No matter what we do to God’s love, His love is never withdrawn and His love never wavers. It is perpetually, generously, and eternally extended to us, simultaneously giving itself away to us and drawing us toward itself. And no matter how many times or in how many ways we offend His love, His love remains to receive us and to lift us up. But unlike God’s love, our love is fickle.
When someone slights us, offends us, or even annoys us, sometimes in the most trivial of ways, we all too often do not turn to raise them up in the way that God does for us. Rather, like the unforgiving servant, we forget or ignore the fact that, through Christ, we have been shown mercy, released from servitude, and forgiven our debts, and we keep a ledger of the mistakes of others, tallying up their debt to us, and enslaving them in our hearts to the things they have done. The Lord wants better from us because He wants better for us.
God invites us into a love as perfect as His own — to love perfectly, to forgive perfectly. But He does not invite us thusly because He enjoys setting unreasonable expectations and holding us to unachievable standards. He wants this for us because He loves us and wants what is best for us, and He knows that what is best for us is to love as He has loved because His love is perfect and, in perfect love there is no fear, there is no judgment, and there is no resentment. Perfect love lets go of all that is not love — the slights, offenses, and annoyances — by love, for the love that lifts us up even when we fail to or forget to love.
Oratio
Not A Gift
to let go of that
which does not
belong to me
the slights
the offenses
the annoyances
these are not gifts
to accept
to hold onto
to cherish in my bosom
to cling to them
does not serve me
nor the One I serve
insults
injuries
abuses
though they may hurt
they are not against me
not against the me
He knows me to be
my heart wants to be free
to receive only love
to give only love
to let go of all that is not love
Contemplatio
Whatever you were handed today that was not love, you may set it down. You are not the sum of what has been done to you, but the one He has always known and loved beneath it. Stay in the quiet with this, saying yes to whatever He wants to stir in you.
Related Scripture
“Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
— 1 Peter 4:8 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Not To Change God’s Mind: On The Incarnation As Revelation (Lectio Divina), which traces that same truth from another angle — that God’s love was never conditional on what we do to Him, and ours need not be either.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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