God Loves You

This morning my prayers read: “For your name’s sake, lead me and guide me,” and “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” I prayed to Jesus sincerely that God would use my life, even as Jesus prayed in the Garden: “Thy will be done.” I thought of all the people God has brought into my life’s path. Some walk with me for many years --- we have much to discuss and learn from each other --- and some are only a fleeting glance along the way. I look at them, and they look at me. Do we even remember the moment? Yet for each of us, there was a purpose to that moment, something to make each of us a little better. I pray God uses me to shed His grace onto all who enter my life, that they not remember me, but only Him, and His love for them, in even the littlest things.

I glanced through St. Catherine’s book, Dialogue, again yesterday. It has so much to say, or rather, they have so much to say. Dialogue is a book recording communications Catherine had with God. Her words, her questions, echo so many of mine. God’s words, His answers speak to me also, with love.

Catherine, one of two women granted the title “Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church,” yearns for God’s love, and He so often tells her: “Here it is, now give it away.” I think perhaps some portion of Catherine’s yearnings for love come from her childhood. Did you know that Catherine was the 24th of 25 children? If you grew up in a home with siblings, you know how difficult it sometimes was to get mom or dad’s attention. Maybe you even thought they loved one of the other children more than you. You craved attention, and when you got it, you knew without a doubt how much your parents loved you, but when their attention was not on you … still, you doubted. Catherine never doubted her parents love, nor did she doubt God’s love, but still when His consolations were not directly seen …, still she craved His love, as if it weren’t there, even for a moment

We all crave love, but love is not something you can buy or earn. It is freely given, and love is limitless. When we feel unloved, we often turn to things of the world. Things, we can buy and own; we can put them on the shelf or in the closet, and they will never go away; they are ours. But things aren’t love, no matter how many of them we have. We substitute things for love, sometimes, and we can never get enough of them --- but love is limitless. Like Catherine, if we don’t see some physical result of God’s love, some earthly consolation, some answer to our prayers, sometimes we doubt. That is the greatest weakness we can have in our life, to doubt God’s love.

Catherine had 24 siblings who also wanted her parents’ attention. We have billions of siblings in this world, all loved by God our Father, all craving his attention. One of the ways Catherine’s parents showed their love for Catherine was in their trust, even when they weren’t around. Catherine’s unique duties in the family may have been to sweep the floors, or empty the trash, not exactly glamorous duties, but they were hers uniquely, and her parents needed them done --- and even her siblings did, even if they were not aware of it. Some of Catherine’s siblings may have had more important duties, perhaps some were assigned to be responsible for others in the family, dressing them, feeding them, or teaching them when their parents were not there. Perhaps Catherine was jealous of some of them, thinking they had more love because they had more responsibilities. Perhaps she was relieved not to have such responsibilities for others --- but she did! She did have responsibilities for others, even if she didn’t see or understand their importance. We all have responsibilities for others, because your life is not just about you, it is about your family. Her parents knew what it took to run the house the way they meant it to be, they way they created it to be, and they assigned each of their children unique responsibilities so that it was a family home. Catherine’s parents made their household in love, for each and every one of their children. God made His house and His children that way too.

In Dialogue, Catherine learned of the Father’s love which is always there, the Father who created us each uniquely, each with a purpose for Him, and for our family. We have free will, and we can choose to not do that purpose, ignoring the tasks put before us to do. We can whine: “Why don’t you make George do that, he’s bigger and stronger,” or “What about Mary; she’s not doing anything.” Or we can be like Samuel and say: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

We crave love, and yet we so often ignore signs of God’s love all around us. His creation, all the good things in our lives, are the attention he has focused on us, “things” to remind us of His love. The many people, who enter our lives or cross our paths, are the trust he places in us. They are there for a reason, whether we understand it or not; we have responsibilities to them, our family. The talents He gave us are like the broom and instructions her parents gave to Catherine, on how to do things needed by her family. It was a most important way her parents showed their love to Catherine, they trusted her to act with love, just as they did.

God, our Father, loves us. He trusts us. He has blessed you in ways you may never understand, but look around and see all the gifts in this world he has given you, all the people He brings into your life. All the opportunities to meet even more, to show them the love He trusts you to give.

You can’t earn God’s love; it is always there. You can show it.

No matter what He has trusted you to do, be it a big thing or a little thing, you can make Him proud.

This is why I have put you among your neighbors: so that you can do for them what you cannot do for me --- that is, love them without any concern for thanks and without looking for any profit for yourself. And whatever you do for them I will consider done for me.
(Dialogue, Paulist Press, P121)