FALLING IN LOVE WITH GOD

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders. . . :  ‘What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He said to the first, “Son, . . . work in the vineyard today.” He said in reply, “I will not,” but afterwards. . . went. The man. . . gave the same order to the other son. He replied, “Yes, sir,” but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?’ They answered, ‘The first.’ Jesus said, ‘. . . tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.’” Matthew 21:28-32 

1. Some of us, as youths said yes to God by joining movements to make “Thy kingdom come”, but, as time went on, let other matters less worthy of our attention become our all-consuming pursuits.
2. Others of us, being more self-centered, focused on good grades, excelling and doing whatever was needed to make for what others led us to believe would make for a happy life, but, then the Light dawned, and we allowed God a home in our hearts and shared with others our new-found joy.

As a young religious I heard a homily on this Gospel story of the two sons in which the homilist spoke of our own tendencies to be son #2. He asked us to ponder these lyrics of a then popular song:

“What Kind of Fool Am I to never fall in love?  It seems that I’m the only one that I have been thinking of.”

The homilist point was that each of us must come to a point in our life where we, like son #1, recognize that turning and falling in love with God and God’s people (all humanity past, present and future) is all that really matters to us.

FALLING IN LOVE

Many of us don’t think of “falling in love” when we think of our relationship with God. Why?  Perhaps because so much of what is written and shown to us about “falling in love” is really not that at all.  Falling in love is often depicted as wanting to “grab” something or someone for one’s own or mutual pleasure, but that is not “falling in love.”  True falling in love is allowing myself to see and be overwhelmed by the magnificence of this other person and is accompanied by a willingness to surrender the pursuit of my own interests in order to further participate in and support the well-being of the other.  Who is more worthy of that than God – God who is a Trinity and the Source of our unquenchable longing to give and receive love?

The song mentioned above is from the play “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.”  Let us take time today or during this week to ponder which world we are allowing ourselves to be living in at this very moment: the world of the son who says “yes” to God but tends to forget that and turns away or the one who, having said “no”, now turns back to gaze on Him and fall in love with Him?

SAINT AUGUSTINE: LATE HAVE I LOVED YOU

One blogger, Brennan Hughes, writes:

“I especially treasure prayers that capture the passionate longings of one whose heart has been truly touched by God.  Augustine is one of those thinkers who truly changed the world.  And reading this prayer, it’s clear that the source of his spiritual power is deep intimacy with Jesus. You probably know that Augustine was a pagan intellectual who did not encounter God’s Spirit and turn to Christ until he was in his thirties.  Reflecting on those lost years of his youth, Augustine prayed in his famous Confessions,”

(Can you pray St. Augustine’s prayer”?)

“Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!

“Lo, you were within,
but I outside, seeking there for you,
and upon the shapely things you have made
I rushed headlong – I, misshapen.
You were with me, but I was not with you.
They held me back far from you,
those things which would have no being,
were they not in you.

“You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;
you flared, blazed, banished my blindness;
you lavished your fragrance, I gasped; and now I pant for you;
I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst;
you touched me, and I burned for your peace.”  Confessions, Book 10: XXVII

BISHOP ROBERT BARRON ON FALLING IN LOVE WITH GOD

Bishop Robert Barron, in his Catholicism Series segment advises us, “Stop grasping at God, stop trying to ‘know’ God; fall in love with God.”

JESUS ON LOVE

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30

Sister Loretta