Be who YOU are!

   You were made to be loved and to love in return.  Indeed, all of the cosmos were made from love.  If we know that “God is Love” [1 John 4:8], then we know that everything that God did is love.  But if you and I were made to love God in return, then we must be free to choose love.  If we were forced to love God, we would be like robots only doing as we were programmed.  But then, it would not be love, since love must be free.

   Using the word love often reminds us of the warm fuzzy feelings of love.  When we think like this we need to remember the greatest act of love this world has ever seen.  God, in the flesh, dying a gruesome death on a cross.  Love is not defined by the warm and fuzzy feelings, but by actions.  Sure, you can feel love, but love is an action.  Words and feelings only do so much.  Actions are the meat and potatoes of love.

   If we were made to be loved, we should allow ourselves to be loved.  God indeed does love you.  No matter what you have done.  Some of the great saints like Augustine were great sinners first.  Not just sinners, but great sinners.  And God still loved them.  He did not love what they did, but God can see past our actions and still love us.  After all, He is God.  We might fail to do that for others or ourselves, but God … well, He is God.

   St. Augustine, please help us to see God’s love for us despite our faults and lead us to better love God.