The Mystery Of God’s Love

If you read today's Gospel just once and don't give it much thought you will find you are missing so much wealth that John wants to share with us. In today's Gospel Jesus is making an appeal for your love and mine. We cannot add to His glory. God has no need of our praise. But by knowing and loving Him it is We who benefit. What is John telling us? He tells us that Jesus. the Son of God, lived with His Father in glory. All life owed its existence to Him. But then He came into our world as one like ourselves. He came to share His divine life with us so that we too could become children of His Father and become His brothers and sisters. John proudly and happily says, "We saw His glory. He was full of grace and truth, and from His fullness we have all received" We are dealing with a great mystery - the mystery of God's love for us in Christ. Here is a parable which I hope will shed a little light on this great mystery.

Just supposing on top of this lectern I see a little ant. I take the ant into the palm of my hand and I say to it, "Do you know, I like you. I like you so much that I am going to make you share my life. I am going to have tiny spectacles made for you so that you can enjoy the books I like to read and the television programmes I like to watch. I am going to have a little box made for you so that I can place you on top of the dash board of my car and you can travel around with me. I am going to make you a little guitar so that you can accompany me whenever I give concerts and when I busk in shopping centres. I am also going to crochet for you a red and white scarf so that we can both stand in the Kop and cheer Liverpool from victory to victory.

I know exactly what you are thinking. Fr. Francis you are mad. You're crazy! Here is a grown up man wanting to share the life an ant. Just look at the gulf between the ant and yourself. And how right you would be.

Now let us look at Jesus Christ and ourselves. What has He done for us? He has taken each one of us in the palm of His hand and said, "I love you. Do you know I love you so much that I want to share your life. I want to begin my human existence by being conceived in my mother's womb. I want to learn to grow up in a family, to learn team to read and write. I want to know what it is like to be cold and hungry, to suffer and to be hurt just like you, want to identify myself completely with you". Now think of the gulf between Jesus and ourselves. If we thought that the gulf between the ant and myself was so great, the gulf between Jesus and ourselves is infinite. If you thought my love for the ant was crazy. Then just how crazy Jesus' love must have been for each one of us. And did you notice that I wanted to raise the ant to my level? What has Jesus Christ done? He has come down to our level. He must think the world of us. So what did He do? He came in humility and weakness. He wanted to gain our love so that we would follow Him of our own free will.

Of course there was a risk involved. He was leaving Himself open to rejection. People might not accept Him. They might not see "the glory' He wished to confer on them. And this is exactly what happened. "He came unto His own and His own received Him not." But some did accept Him. To these He gave a share in His divine life.

Lord Jesus, by becoming human like us, You made real love possible between us. The whole point of today's Gospel is You saying to each one of us, 'Try and plumb the depths of My love for you and love Me in return. You just don't know what happiness it will bring you.