The Stained Glass Buffalo: the proof is in the loving

25 August 2009

the proof is in the loving

The Christian who lives for God and wishes to love him with all his strength feels the need to be sure that his love for God is not an illusion; but how can he be sure? The apostle John answers: If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us (John 4:12.

The great criterion which characterizes true love of God is the love of our neighbor. This is an infallible standard because theological love is unique, and though difficult to test in relation to God, it is easily verifiable in relation to the neighbor.

We do not need much discernment to perceive whether our love of neighbor is a matter of words, or is a concrete reality, proved in deed. St. Teresa of Jesus teaches her daughters:

We cannot know whether or not we love God, although there are strong indications for recognizing that we do love him; but we can know whether we love our neighbor. And be sure that the more advanced you are in love for your neighbor, the more advanced you will be in the love of God. (Interior Castle)

When fraternal love is sincere and heartfelt and shown by deed, there can be no doubt that God's love is perfected in us (1 John 4:12).

Divine Intimacy
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD

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It is Jesus

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”
--Pope John Paul II

Carlo Carretto:

How much I must criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you! You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than to anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence. You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful. Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face - and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms! No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you. Then too - where would I go? To build another church? But I could not build one without the same defects, for they are my defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ's church. No, I am old enough, I know better.