God is love

1 Jn 4:7-10; PS 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8; Lk 4:18; Mk 6:34-44

A year ago this month, my wife and I were blessed to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with our Shepherd, Bishop Robert Gruss. One of the places we visited was the site of today’s Gospel reading on the five loaves and two fish. The passage ends with “They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments.” The question that comes to mind is “why so much left over?”

The answer comes from the first reading, where John states “for God is love.” God’s love for us is without limits. He doesn’t love us just enough to get by, He loves us unconditionally and without limits. The best way for me to understand God’s love is my love for my children. I love them unconditionally. There is nothing they can do or say to change it, nothing they can do or say to limit it. I would do just about anything for my children to demonstrate my love for them. God love is like that, but even more so.

Love, for some, can be a difficult concept to grasp. It may be because they haven’t truly experienced love in this world. For others, it is because life experiences which didn’t turn out the way they expected it to be. And for still others, which included me earlier in my life, simply don’t understand it because it wasn’t expressed or explained. Love is like most human emotions, sadness, grief, joy, peace, difficult to explain, but once experienced, one fully understands.

God loves you. There is nothing you can say or do to change it. There is nothing you can do or say to limit it. So take a few minutes right now to meditate on God’s love for you. If you have experienced God’s love, thank Him for it. If you haven’t yet, ask God to show you in a tangible way how much He loves you. And then find a way to share God’s love for you, with someone else today.