Sum of the Father’s Love

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12 February 2010 View Comments

“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.” Venerable Pope John Paul II

We live in a world that measures our worth by success and failures. We live in a world of many false pretenses. We can never measure up to the expectations of these pretenses. We have these pretenses for what is success, what is happiness, what is a “good life”. They will forever fail to satisfy our desire to be whole.

We hear stories again and again about people who are successful, who have everything we deem as what we should strive for, the have lived the life, achieved the “American dream” and yet, they are unhappy, depressed, still striving for more of that pie in the sky that we call “the pursuit of happiness”.

If you and I continue to allow ourselves to be sucked into this lie that our lives are measured by success, wealth, popularity, beauty, perfection, cleanliness, humor, family, romance, possessions, accolades, being at the top of whatever ladder we are climbing; we will never find true joy.

Our lives are measured simply by one inherent truth, that our Father – God almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen – loves each of us with an undying never-ending love that can never be extinguished. His love is like a fire blazing that desires to engulf us in flames. His love is beyond compare.

God, our Father, desires to consume us in the fires of his love, that he might purify and perfect us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Today I pray that you and I may rejoice in the promise of God’s never ending love and that we may allow that love to draw us closer in, that it might transform us.

Opportunity to be Consumed by the Father’s Love

This coming Wednesday we begin the Season of Lent. Perhaps we can allow Lent to be the opportunity for God to transform us in the fires of his love. Let him purify you, let him change you into the creation he desires you to be. Consider what you will do this Lent – consider doing something truly drastic this Lent, that you might show true penance and sorrow for your sins and a sincere desire to allow God’s love to be the measure of your worth. Just like St. Francis flung himself into the thorn bush to repent for his sins, may you and I fling ourselves into the fires of God’s love.

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