A Love Without Conditions

The season of Lent reminds us that God’s love is unconditional. No matter what has happened in the past God’s love remains true. Sometimes we think that our sin is so bad that God will never forgive us. We think that our sin is special. Unforgivable. Erasable. This is not true. God’s love is a vast ocean of mercy, grace, and forgiveness. He understands our weakness and our human frailty even better than we know it ourselves.

The reason for this is that God’s love isn’t simply an idea. Rather it’s a lived experience of give and take, a love offered and received, enjoyed and celebrated. Throughout all the ups and downs of life God loves us first and never lets go. Whatever happens his love is faithful, tenacious, and unconquerable. As a result we can be confident that we will never be turned away due to some personal mishap. God’s love is constant. A continuous flow of kindness, charity, and tenderness from a heavenly fountain of love for our thirsty souls.

If this is the case it’s important for us to pass this astounding gift along. Each person we bump into is to be received with respect, generosity, and peace. No one is so bad that they are to be left out. God’s compassionate love is to be shared with everyone regardless of creed, race, gender, language, or cultural expression.

When we do the opposite and emphasize our external differences at the expense of our inner likeness we get into all kinds of trouble. People may appear different outwardly but interiorly we know that we all bleed the same red blood. We are more alike than unlike.

During Lent (hopefully at all times!) we want to stay close to the God of Life. As we stay near to Abba’s loving flame it warms us and begins to melt the wall of ice that divides us from one other.

In this time of renewal may we pursue a vibrant relationship with Jesus so that our burning love becomes “a raging flame that floods cannot drown out.”