I’m reading a book called Your Eucharistic Identity by Father Gregory Pine and there is a part that I was really struck by when reading a few days ago. When talking about Jesus and His 33 years on earth, he says, “He came to bestow the depth and breadth of God’s love for us in the most excellent and extravagant fashion. So great is His desire to be near us that He personally enters into every dimension of our human lives, transfiguring them with His love and enabling our own response of love” (Pine 48). He transfigures every dimension of our lives with love. Have we experienced that love and how do we respond?
When we encounter the love of Jesus, our lives are transformed in the best way possible. We cannot encounter Christ and not be changed. This encounter should make us move from just knowing about Jesus to actually knowing Jesus. It should move us from seeing Jesus as someone distant and far off to having a personal relationship with Him. Are we taking time to deepen our relationship with Christ each day?
These lines from the book speak of the desire that God has to be near us. The Psalm for today also speaks of this; the Lord takes delight in his people” (Psalm 149). God does not merely tolerate us or love us out of obligation. But rather, He takes delight in us and desires to be close to us. That is an amazing reality.
It’s sad to think about all of the people who do not know of Christ’s love for them, or who do not believe in His love for them. Part of our job is to help extend His love to others so that they might encounter Him and so that they might know of His desire to be close to them. How are we doing with loving the people around us, those who we know and those who are strangers?
The fact that Jesus enters into every dimension of our lives is truly transformative. He doesn’t have to, but He does. He desires to be near us, do we desire to be near Him? My prayer for each of us today is that we would allow the love of Jesus to transform our lives and not forget that He will never leave us!
Faith and The Good Stuff 