by Fr. Tommy Lane
Does God really love us? Does God really care? These and other similar questions may arise in our minds when something bad happens. Yes, God does care. God cares more than we can ever imagine. God does love us more than we can ever imagine. God loves us more than we love ourselves. In some kind of strange way, I like to think that God is closer to us than even our heart is to us!
Our Scripture readings today give us a picture of God’s closeness to us and God’s care for us, but indeed all the Bible from its very beginning paints that same picture of God’s loving concern for us. God called Abraham to begin to form a people who would understand his love for them and respond to him. When his people became trapped in Egypt God raised up Moses to lead them to freedom and God performed the greatest miracle of the Old Testament, the Exodus, leading them through the water to safety on the other side. God gave his people the covenant through Moses at Mount Sinai as a sign of his love for them. When they failed to live by his covenant, God raised up prophets to try to steer them back again to live by his covenant. The first reading today (Isa 66:10-14) is an excerpt of the prophet Isaiah and the excerpt begins with God encouraging his people to be happy because of his love for them. Three times in the first lines of the reading God encourages his listeners to be happy for what will happen to Jerusalem: he says, “rejoice,” “be glad,” “exult.” God wants us also to rejoice, be glad, and exult. In that same first reading, God describes his love as that of a mother for her child: “as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.” (Isa 66:13) We all know the beauty of the love of a mother for her child, and God says his love for us is like that. Of course, God’s love for us is much stronger than the love of a mother for her child but when we see the love of a mother for her child it should remind us of the far greater love of God for us. Does God really love us? Does God really care? Yes, God does care. God loves us and cares more than we can ever imagine.
God’s love and care for us is seen above all in Jesus, God becoming human to help us find our way to God and to try to convince us of God’s love for us. The Word was made flesh and lived among us so that we might understand all the better God’s love for us and how to live as sons and daughters of God. When the Father gave his Son for us, truly he could not have done any more for us. Do you know Jesus and spend time with him? Try to spend time every day with Jesus who is the Father’s gift of his love to you. Jesus died for you. Does God really love us? Does God really care? Yes, God does care. God loves us and cares more than we can ever imagine.
Another way in which God loves us is what God offers us through the Church, through the sacraments, through its care for the sick, through its education, and through those whom Jesus calls to continue his work. Jesus founded the Church and called the twelve apostles whose successors are the bishops, and in the Gospel today (Luke 10:1-12, 17-20) we heard the account of Jesus sending out the seventy-two to minister in a way very similar to that of the twelve apostles (in the previous chapter). These seventy-two are like an enlargement of the twelve, and the ministry of the seventy-two so similar to that of the twelve apostles reminds us of the ministry of priests who assist bishops. When Jesus sent out the apostles and the seventy-two to preach and heal, they were doing the work of Jesus. When Jesus calls bishops and priests now to do his work, it is Jesus continuing to love us and care for us just as he loved and cared for the people of his own time and place through his apostles and the seventy-two. Does God really love us? Does God really care? Yes, God does care. God loves us and cares more than we can ever imagine.
Once again in the first reading, God describes his love as that of a mother for her child: “as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.” (Isa 66:13) As we think of God’s love for us like that of a mother, our thoughts turn to Our Lady, and her love for us. We know of her love for us by coming to us in places such as Lourdes and Fatima to help us stay close to her son Jesus. We can feel her presence and comfort with us sometimes. God’s gift to us of the love of Our Lady, the Mother of God, is another way in which God loves and cares for us. As we think of the love of Our Lady for us, and God’s love for us through Our Lady, the Rosary is such a beautiful way to return that love to Our Lady. Does God really love us? Does God really care? Yes, God does care. God loves us and cares more than we can ever imagine: “as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.”
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2019
This homily was delivered in a parish in Indiana.
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