Category: Spirituality

“To love means to open ourselves to suffering. Shall we shut our doors to love, then and ‘be safe'” – Elisabeth Elliot, The Path of Loneliness

One idea that has often kept me from loving Jesus more is the idea that Jesus doesn’t need anything from me. He is God after all, and God is Perfect. And somehow, I’ve found it difficult to love Someone who is perfect.

It may sound absurd, but somehow, I find it easier to love beings such as me, people who are imperfect. People who need something. People who crave for love and whose hearts are broken when their love is not returned.

With another imperfect person, I feel that I could do something of worth. I can care for that person and protect that person from harm. I can avoid doing things that could hurt him or her.

But with God, how do I even begin to love? If He doesn’t need anything from me, what more could I possibly do?

It is only much later when I’ve realized the flaw in my line of thinking. Why did I ever believe that God doesn’t need my love or that He wouldn’t be hurt when His love is not returned?

Mother Teresa spoke about the thirst of Jesus, this thirst that isn’t physical but a real thirst for love:

“Jesus is God, therefore His Love and His Thirst are infinite. He, the Creator of the universe, asked for the love of his creatures. He has thirst for our love … These words: ‘I THIRST’ … Do they echo in our soul?”

God didn’t need to need us, but He chose to. He didn’t need to be hurt, but He allowed Himself to be vulnerable for the sake of love.

In the diary of St. Faustina, we can read the following words from Jesus:

“Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a feeble image and likeness of My love.”

Jesus allowed Himself to be born as a human being. As a baby, He needed the protection of His earthly mother and father. As a man, He underwent pain and suffering from the people who mocked Him, from those who crucified Him, and even from His friends who deserted Him.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.”-C.S. Lewis

Jesus chose to love us and in loving us, risked being hurt for the sake of love.

May I no longer think of God as One who is unreachable, cold and indifferent to us. May I never think that He is One who never gets hurt when His love is unreturned.

God is Love. Love that proves itself in suffering, even to the point of dying for His beloved ones.
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”-John 15:13, WEBBE

There were a lot of times when I felt as though it were difficult for God to have pity on people like me. Times like that, I saw Him as a strict King who is ready to punish us for our sins. And we have many sins to be guilty of.

Isn’t is true that many people are afraid to follow God because we think He cannot understand our weaknesses? Some even leave the Church because they felt unloved and cast away.

How many times have we thought ourselves to be kinder and more understanding than God? How many times have we thought that God’s heart could never be moved with compassion?

Reading the following verses from Mark, however, I’ve realized how great our misconception about God had been:

Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is late in the day. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.”

But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.”

– Mark 6, 34–37, WEBBE

The disciples merely wanted to send the people away. But Jesus had pity on them and saw their hunger, both for physical and spiritual food. God’s Compassion may not be easily understood but it is far deeper than we could ever imagine.

Today, think for a few moments how God looks at you. He knows you and calls you by name. He sees you. He understands your pain. Other people may fail to give you the love that you need, but He will never fail to shower you with His unfailing love.

Sometimes, all we need is just one person who believes in us and who will never give up on us. Someone who sees beyond our weaknesses, beyond our faults. Who knows that though we walk in darkness, we can still find our way into the light.

He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up, saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man. A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God, nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’ ”

The Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them??—?-Luke 18:1–7, WEBBE

What does it mean to never give up? What does it mean to not lose hope?

There are times when we’re so deep in darkness that we could hardly remember what light looks like. There are times when we’re in so much pain that we could hardly imagine how things could ever be better again.

How could they? How could everything still be okay?

So many things have gone wrong. We have failed to accomplish the plans we made. We’ve lost our very dreams. We’ve failed to protect the ones we love the most.

When you have lost so much, how do you not give up? How do you find the strength to carry on?

Sometimes, my friend, it’s not only a matter of not giving up. It’s matter of having someone who never gives up on you.

If you have a person who can still believe with you even when everything seems hopeless, not everything is lost.

But what if you don’t even have such a person?

My friend, there is always Jesus. He is the One Friend who will always be with you. The One Friend who will never give up in you.

Even the best of people may walk away. Everyone else may stop believing. But remember the One whose light can overcome all darkness.

He never gave up when His disciples abandoned Him. He never gave up on Peter even when he denied Him. He never gave up even when He felt excruciating pain on the cross.

He loves you so much and He will never give up on you.

Have you ever dragged yourself through chores, feeling a heavy burden all the way, doing things almost mechanically and mindlessly? Have you ever spent days exhausted and feeling empty, almost failing to have the strength to finish the things you must do?

Though there are days when we must struggle and simply try our best to live through, there are times when the source of our troubles is our failure to connect to the Source of strength and inspiration.

Mother Teresa said, “Work without love is slavery.” Have we forgotten the love we must have to help us endure the most difficult days?

In the book “The Imitation of Christ”, Thomas Kempis imparted to us this wisdom:

“Love is a great thing, greatest of all goods, because it alone renders light every burden and bears equally all that is unequal. Because it carries a burden without feeling it, and renders sweet and pleasing every bitterness.”

Where is your heart in all of those days you’ve felt empty within? Have you forgotten the love you’ve had at first?

“ But I have this against you, that you left your first love.”?—?Revelation 2:4, WEBBE

Never forget your first love. Never fail to find time to pray and to converse with Him who is the source of all your hopes and joys.

Even as you go through your daily task, you can pause every now and then to remember God. Look up towards heaven and remember that you are not alone.

We have this indispensable need to go back to His presence, to have a glimpse of His goodness. Let your vision of Him inspire you throughout the day. It will give you a firm purpose, patience to endure trials and sweetness to overcome all bitterness.

“…couldn’t you watch with me for one hour?”-Matthew 26, WEBBE

I think one of the most painful things that often happen to a person undergoing a difficult period in life is the feeling of being alone. Just when one needs a person who can listen, no one is there. Just when one looks for comfort and consolation, there is no shoulder to lean on to. It’s as though the whole world has walked away and turned its back on you.

Why is it that people turn away just when you need them most?

Perhaps some people feel uncomfortable in the company of a loved one who is hurting. Perhaps it feels painful to just be there and feel powerless in helping a friend or a family in need.

But what they must realize is that their mere presence is already a big help to someone who is suffering. Just having someone who can bear to see you cry is a source of strength and hope.

“…couldn’t you watch with me for one hour?” Jesus asked His friends when they kept on sleeping instead of praying and staying with Him before His passion and crucifixion.

Jesus knows just how much it hurts to suffer and have no one. He understands the desolation of those who have been deserted by their closest friends just when they needed them the most.

If you are undergoing a dark time in your life right now, and if you feel you have no one to lean on to, try Jesus. In your darkest and most painful hour, let Him keep watch with you. Let Him stay with you.

Your problems may not immediately go away, but you will have the comfort of knowing He is there. You’d have the solace of knowing that you are not alone.