The Most Amazing Love

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).   And through Jesus, we came to have eternal life.  John says that Jesus came through not only water but water and blood (1 John 5:6).  These symbolize how we obtain life through the living water of baptism and also through the Blood of Christ, the Eucharist, which cleanses us from sin.  Yet, to gain eternal life we first have to let Him into our lives and trust in Him.  John stresses the efficacy of faith when he says that whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:12).  We have to ask ourselves if we truly and completely believe and trust in Jesus Christ during all times in our lives; the good and the bad.  Do we turn to prayer in our time of need?  Do we live our lives in Christ?  Do we have complete confidence in Him?

God loves us so much that He forgives our sins when we ask for His mercy.  In the Gospels, leprosy represents a physical example of the invisible reality of sin; the incurable disease that affects us all.  Jesus saves us from sins.  No matter how bad our sins may be, when we ask Him God grants us forgiveness because of the sacrifice of His Son.  Consider the leper in Mark’s Gospel (Mark 1: 40-45).  He surrenders himself to Jesus, and by his actions and words, says “I believe in you and your power over me. I trust you implicitly with my needs. I know you can help me, and I ask for that help. I surrender myself to you. You are my hope, my cleanser, my redeemer. Please cure me of the stain that covers me.”  That is faith.  And so Jesus cures him.  Jesus reached out and touched the leper – a person whom others were not even supposed to get close to, much less touch, and cleansed his leprosy.  Jesus can do the same to us; He can forgive our sins and cleanse us if we ask for His forgiveness.  

We must all come down from our pride and self-righteousness all the way to the feet of Christ to be forgiven and cleansed.  I am a sinner. I continuously fall, but God never ceases to forgive me and lift me back up.  God shows His immense love by giving me mercy every time I come down from my pride and my sins to fall at His feet.  And this is one of the most beautiful things; God never stops forgiving and He never stops loving.  As St. Augustine said, “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”  Jesus reached out and cleansed the leper even though there were hundreds of others.  We are the leper. We can all ask for forgiveness and be cleaned. We must not forget the love and mercy that He shows.

We are called to be like the leper: to let go of our pride and ask for God’s never-ending mercy.  I heard or read somewhere that, “God is love.  He doesn’t need us.  But He wants us.  And that is the most amazing thing.”