TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

-From Christ Is Alive! by Pope Francis

In God’s word, we find many expressions of his love. It is as if God tried to find different ways of showing that love, so that, with one of them at least, God could touch your heart. For example, there are times when God speaks of himself as an affectionate father who plays with his children. “I led them with cords of compassion, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.” (Hosea 11.4) At another time, God speaks of God’s self as filled with the love of a mother whose visceral love for her children makes it impossible for her to neglect or abandon them: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15) God even compares God’s self to a lover who goes so far as to write his beloved on the palm of his hands, to keep her face always before him: “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands!” (Isaiah 49:6) At other times, God emphasizes the strength and steadfastness of his invincible love. “For the mountains may depart, and the hills be shaken, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be shaken.” (Isaiah 54″10). Or he tells us that we have been awaited from eternity, for it was not by chance that we came into this world: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” (Jeremiah 31:3) Or he lets us know that he sees in us a beauty that no one else can see: “For you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” (Isaiah 43:4) Or he makes us realize that his love is not cheerless, but pure joy, welling up whenever we allow ourselves to be loved by him: “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory. He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

Father Bill +