The Color of God’s Love

06-18-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Stanislaus Okonkwo

The popular 19th century hymn by J. Oatman of New Jersey, Count your blessings exhorts us to count our blessings in times of serious troubles. The refrain of this song ends thus: Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God has done. A modified version of it ends with …and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Also the Archangel Raphael taught us that it is right to keep the secret of the king but a duty to reveal and publicize the deeds of God, and to thank him honorably (Tobit 12:7,11). The reason behind these admonitions is that when we feed our minds with memories of the past great deeds of the Lord, we become emboldened to believe what God can still do in our current situation. Such testimonies give vital force to our faith, dispel our fears and doubts, and strengthen our hope. Above all, they show us the color of God’s love.

In the First reading, as the sons of Israel wandered in the desert of Sinai, the Lord addressed them through Moses. He recounts for them all the wonderful salvific acts he performed on their behalf in the land of Egypt, and how he carried them on eagle’s wings, and took them to himself. Based on these testimonies, he now enjoined them thus: “If you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all nations shall be my very special own, for all the earth is mine” (Ex 19:4.6). This was a prelude to the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1-17). So, the Lord establishes his love as the basis of his moral right over them as a reason why they ought to obey the commandments. It is on the strength of God’s deliberate choice, confirmed by his loving care and providence for them that they can truly claim thus: “The Lord is God, we belong to him, we are his people, the sheep of his flock” (Ps 99:3). They can make this confession because God, out of his love, chose to rescue them and draw them to himself. It is for this same selfless love that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners and unworthy of divine salvation. We sinned but it is God who took the initiative of reconciling us to himself, even before we could ask for mercy. Therefore, on account of this outreaching love God has shown us, we can joyfully trust Him to do more (Rom 5:6-11). For if God can sacrifice the Christ as our redeemer, what else can he not give us? (Rom 8:32).

This same love moved Jesus to show pity for the crowd milling around him and he expresses his love and pity not only by words, but also by deeds to help them. He summons his twelve apostles and sends them to reach out to the people and attend to their needs. By commissioning and sending his apostles, he not only intervened in the people’s problems, but also empowers mankind (all of us) to participate in the divine salvific mission (Matt 9:36-10:8). Like his apostles, each of us becomes an extended hand of the Lord to the needy neighbor, and a face of God’s love to one another. This is the nature of God’s love, as St. John puts it “This is his love, not that we loved God first but that he loved us first and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). Let us keep in mind that God first took the initiate of love, and let us trust him and pay him back, love for love and then love one another as he has loved us.

Fr. Stan