17th Sunday after Pentecost 15.9.13 Loving God
We are commanded to love God. It is a strange thing when we think about it – to be commanded to love. Love is something, we would think, that looks after itself. We love whatever is loveable.
You would not have to tell Romeo to love Juliet. It comes naturally.
So it should come naturally to love God, but because of our sin it has become more complicated than it should be.
In Romeo’s case the attraction is visible, physical, instant, no explanation required.
Whereas in relation to God, from our side at least, it is just the opposite. God is not visible, not audible or tangible; He does require explanation, and further thought.
And loving God often cuts across the working of other desires that we might have, which are more instant - such as the desire for pleasure or to avoid pain. For example it is hard to get out of bed to go to Mass.
Yet Romeo would have got out of bed if he had a chance to see Juliet. When we love enough we will do just about anything for the beloved. People will make all sorts of sacrifices for what they hold to be valuable.
It would seem we just do not have enough love for God. That is why it has to be put as a command. You should love God. You must love Him. If you do not love Him now then take whatever steps to begin doing that.
We have to ask God to help us here. We need Him to show us how desirable He is.
If we had never sinned we would have clarity of intellect and will. Our thoughts and desires would all be in complete harmony.
As it is we do not perceive Him clearly because sin has clouded us over, weakening mind and will.
We do need to be told to love God. And we might still argue the point even when we are told!
God can repair the damage we have done through our sin, and the damage we have suffered from the sin of the world. He can help us to think straight, to see clearly, not with the physical eyes but the eyes of the spirit.
He can help us to understand how good He is, and how good - therefore, how desirable.
Think of all the people you love, and all the things you love. God is better than all of them.
We cling to what we love. Initially we will prefer the things of this life to the next, simply because they are more concrete. With our foggy perception we resist the call to higher things. Just pious words, religious talk, we might say.
The Source of all beauty is greater than any one beautiful thing. The things of earth are just shadows or glimpses of what is beyond.
We are still allowed to love people and things, within reason; only we should love God more.
Whatever is good about this earth is from Him and whatever is good about our affections will be perfected and increased in heaven. We will love those we love here, but even more.
So we pray that we can come to love God not as a task but as a joy.
We pray that we really can seek God more than anything else, like a lover seeks the beloved; like a deer thirsts for running streams (Ps 41,1).
As we seek Him He will reveal more of His goodness to us and thus seem more desirable to us. Those who have had a religious conversion or awakening will testify that the joy that comes from being united with God is very great.
It is a discovery of what we should have known all along, a recovery of what we lost in Eden.
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