God Loves You!

A reflection for the 11th Sunday, Ordinary Time, Year A. The readings are Exodus 19:2-6a; Psalm 100; Romans 5:6-11 and Matthew 9:36-10:8

Those of us who were able to celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart on Friday– or if you were not able to go to Mass, maybe you did the readings at home– heard in the second reading, St. John telling us that “God is love”. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is the feast of love. It is a day when the Church reminds us of that central teaching of the Catholic Church: God is love and God loves you. In the Gospel that same day, we heard Jesus say one of the most beautiful words in Scripture: “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” God loves you and wants to lighten your load.

I’m amazed that the readings for today carry much of the same message. And so, I don’t know where you are or how you are today– I don’t know if you’re weary and heavy-laden. I don’t know if you’re tired and burdened, but that’s the good news for today: God loves you. If you don’t remember anything else today, remember that God loves you.

In today’s Gospel we hear something very similar. Jesus looks at the crowd. They are tired. They are oppressed. They suffer. They have all these struggles: They struggle with disease, with cancer; they have financial problems; they have marital issues; they just had a fight with their kids or their parents; they are suffering because of their own bad choices; they are suffering because of the bad choices of other people. They are lost. And Jesus looks at them – Scripture says that he looked at them with pity. But it’s not that he felt sorry for them. He looked at them with love. He loves them. He wants all of them to come to him so he can make their burden light. Why? Because he loves them.

God loves you so much! You can’t imagine how much God loves you. The Catholic Church teaches that every human being is deeply, unconditionally, and intimately loved by God. That means that YOU are God’s beloved. There are 7 billion people in the world and God loves you as if you were the only one. Imagine the love you have for your beloved: God loves you a million times more. We can’t imagine the depths of God’s love for us. That’s the whole point of Christianity. It is not like other religions that are “man searching for God”. Christianity is God searching for man. God loves you; he searches for you, hunts for you. He wants you with him in Heaven and he will do everything to get you to go to Heaven. God would rather die than to lose you. Actually, God already died for you so that you would not be lost. And what more love than to make it possible for us to receive him fully and really, body, blood, soul and divinity, every day, in the Eucharist. That is love!

But so many of us just don’t feel God’s love. We don’t feel that God loves us. Just about a month ago I was speaking with a Catholic singer and evangelizer – when he was growing up he got involved with gangs and drugs. I asked him why if he had a good up-bringing – which he did – he went to Church and received all the Sacraments; he had good parents. He said that he always believed in God. He always believed that God exists. He just didn’t believe that God loved him.  That is so many of us. We don’t think we are worthy of God’s love. Guess what? Nobody is worthy of God’s love! But God doesn’t care. He loves us anyway, unconditionally. That’s why St. Paul sounds flabbergasted when he writes the Romans in today’s second reading. Who would die for someone else? Why would anyone do that? And maybe, someone would be willing to die to save someone who is good, who is worthy. But to die for someone who doesn’t deserve it?! That’s nuts. But that’s what God does. Why? Because of love.

That’s the God that we heard of today in the first reading from Exodus. God tells the people of Israel that he has chosen them. Not because they are big, strong and powerful. No. They are not. He chose them because he loves them. He saves them from slavery—takes them up as if on the wings of eagles and brings them to himself. Why? Not because they are worthy. Because he loves them.

 If you struggle to believe that God loves you, I know it can be hard. But keep telling yourself that God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. God wants the best for you. God wants you to be happy. God wants to be with you. You are God’s beloved. And so, we respond to God’s love by being grateful. Whether you feel it or not, every day, give God thanks for his love. Everyday God loves us into existence. Thank him and praise him. And trust him. Give him your trust. Even if you don’t feel God’s love, trust that he loves you and gives you his love and is working to bring you home.

Finally, we respond to God’s love by bringing that love to others. So many people today are lost, suffering, confused, distracted, weary and heavy-laden – struggling with all kinds of pain and distress. Jesus looks at the crowd with love and gives them shepherds. That’s why he sends the 12 apostles. We too are sent. We are sent to bring the love of Jesus to others. Especially if you struggle to accept God’s love for yourself, or if you doubt it because you can’t feel it, I encourage you to make an extra effort to bring God’s love to others. Every day. And not just to those who are kind and nice to you. But to those who are most unlovable and difficult. I guarantee that if you do, it will be no time before you start to feel God’s love.

Some of us who were not able to come to the Mass for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, came on Friday night for the vigil Mass for the memorial of St. Anthony. We were blessed to have the relics of St. Anthony here in our parish. Fr. Mario Conte who brought the relics gave the homily. I was amazed that his whole homily was about love. He said the relics were about connection with God, and that it was a connection of love. Why do we have relics? Because God is love and God loves us and he gives us all the tools we need to get to him.

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that God doesn’t love you. God loves you and wants the best for you. Go to him and you will find rest. And then go and take that same love to others.