The Art of Loving God

The parents of a five-year-old discovered that their son was handicapped by poor sight, so they arranged to have him fitted with eyeglasses. But they were disturbed to find that he always perched them on the end of his nose and looked over the top of the lenses. “Why don’t you wear your glasses properly and look through the lenses?” asked his father.

“Because,” said the lad, “the glasses are so nice and they help me see so much better that I don’t want to wear them out.”

We normally expect that the gifts we give others will be used and appreciated. In the same way, God expects us to use appreciatively the bounteous gifts he bestows on all of us. This is especially true of God’s greatest gift, the one about which St. Augustine observed: “There’s only one thing God doesn’t know. He doesn’t know how he could give us a gift greater than himself.” But what exactly is this ultimate Gift, and what does it mean to “use” it?

The beloved disciple offers a helpful, if somewhat enigmatic, answer: “We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16). This suggests that “using” the Gift of God himself means simply “abiding in” or “living in “God’s love.

Everyone who wishes to abide in God must first learn humility. Peter learned this healing lesson in an encounter with Jesus after the resurrection. Jesus adroitly showed the leader of the apostles that he hadn’t been consistently abiding in love (and how can one “abide” without consistency?). As prophesied, Peter had experienced a triple love-failure during Jesus’ trial, by his threefold denial before the cock-crow. It now boomeranged as a trial for Peter as he faced a triple questioning by the risen Jesus” “Do you love me?” (Jn 21:15-17). By eliciting a triple love-affirmation from Peter, Jesus tactfully provided a healing of his humiliating triple love-failure.

A closer look at this incident sheds some light on how humility can heal humiliation. We see that Jesus subtly engineered a threefold humbling for Peter. First, Jesus addressed Peter by his given name: Simon, son of John. This highlighted his humble origin and showed that he would be nothing without this very Jesus he had denied.

Second, although he had had a post-resurrection private encounter with Jesus (1 Cor 15:5), Peter still needed a public challenge in the presence of others. After all, he had pridefully set himself above those others: “Even if all fall away, I will not” (Mk 14:29). Fittingly, then, Jesus’ first question to Peter was, “Do you love me more than these do?”

Last, Peter was humbled (verse 17 says “hurt”) by having his love questioned not once but three times. For this newly exalted vicar of Christ, the lesson was painful but necessary. Love that is not humble is not true love.

This excerpt is from the book The Art of Loving God by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications, 1995. This and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.