One of the most dramatic things about God’s love for us is that it is unconditional. Think about it. We don’t have to dese
rve it to be loved. In fact, we can’t really deserve it. The New Testament makes it clear that the amazing thing about God’s love for us is that while we were still in our sin, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. St. Paul says that it is just possible for us to understand someone giving their life for someone they love, but while Jesus gave his life for us, we were still in our sin, rejecting the very love that was being given.
Jesus used the example of the father of the Prodigal Son to let us know how God loves. The father’s love for his son was unconditional. He did not stop loving his son when the son rejected his love. He was watching the road for the day his son would get his senses back and return home. And when the son returned there was no mention of punishment. The father was overjoyed to have his son back. That is what the older son didn’t like at all. He resented the love the father had for his wayward son.
God loves us even when we are unlovable. And that should tell us something about how we ought to love one another. We shouldn’t first of all require that a person be deserving of our love – we should love them first. And that very love could lead them to be deserving of our love. That is the way God loves, and we ought to pattern our love on the way that God loves us.
1 comments:
Your post brought to mind something my dad likes to say (I think for shock value): "No, I don't love you unconditionally." Meaning, I think, that unconditional love is impossible for humans - only God can love unconditionally. But we can try, and try again. It also reminds me of Teresa of Avila's saying that we can't show our love for God except through our love for our neighbor. I think the older son, in the prodigal son parable, is resentful because all this time he's been perhaps trying to earn his father's love. He doesn't understand that he has as much chance of 'earning' his father's love as his younger brother. The challenge for him is to accept the unconditional love, which was given to his brother, that his father gives to him. I think accepting unconditional love is a very difficult thing to do, because it means that we have done nothing and we can do nothing to merit this love, to keep it. And only by God's grace can we gradually come to understand what an indescribably magnificent thing it is.
I guess I disagree (? - perhaps that's too strong a word) that we can pattern our love after God's. We are as sinful and undeserving as our neighbor. So it would seem that the love we are able to give would come as grace from God, and as for ourselves, "forgive those who trespass against us." We cannot love with the love of God, because that is God's love only, but perhaps we can love someone with neighborly love, brotherly love, knowing it is imperfect, like ourselves.
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