In His Love Is Our Salvation

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the HERALD
(From the Issue of April 3, 2003)

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde at St. Louis Church in Alexandria on March 30 for the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

After 37 years of priesthood, I am convinced that one of the hardest things for most people to understand and accept is a simple yet profound fact: God loves us. This basic and fundamental fact is the theme of today’s Mass. Our three Scripture readings proclaimed in our hearing this morning leave no doubt about this fact.

In our first reading from the Second Book of Chronicles, we observe that God is faithful to His people despite their infidelity to Him. The Chosen People had failed to observe God’s commandments, and after repeatedly sending prophets to call them to repentance, God sent them into exile as punishment for their sins. This He does in justice as a loving Father would correct his son or daughter, and as a loving God, He provides for their return to Jerusalem and return to favor with Him once they had repented for disobeying His commands.

In our second reading, St. Paul revealed to us that "even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] brought us to life with Christ." God knows that we sin. God knows that we reject His will expressed through the Ten Commandments and the Gospels, which are further made concrete by the official teaching office of the Church. God knows that we have a fallen human nature. Knowing all of this and out of His great love for us, God sent His only-begotten Son to die for us while we were still in sin. St. Paul tells us: "it is the gift of God" to us.

In our Gospel reading this morning from St. John, we are given the "Gospel of Love." This short passage of Scripture encapsulates the entire Gospel message of Jesus Christ. The message is that, out of love, God gives us His best gift, His own beloved Son Jesus — not to condemn us, but to save us, to give us life. The love of God is given to us freely and is always present in our lives. "It is not from works, so no one may boast," it is a gift from God.

Yet, how many of us are really convinced that God loves us? That He loves us freely, willingly, faithfully and infinitely? Maybe we are not convinced of God’s love for us because we think of God in terms that are too human or too closely related to the way we love others? Maybe we do not forgive very much or very often, and so then our conclusion is that God doesn’t either. But we forget: God is not made in our image, we are made in His image! Maybe our view of God was set for us while we were children and we see Him as too rigid or too stern? Maybe we prefer not to understand and accept God’s love, because to do so will demand a response from us that we are not ready or willing to give? If we accept His love for us, then we must change our lives and follow His example. If we reject His love for us, then we remain the same and sanctifying grace does not work within us to form us more closely into the image and likeness of God.

Yet, the fact remains: God loves us! It is significant that this message of God’s love comes to us midway through the season of Lent. Lent is a time for us to grow in our understanding of the Christian life, and how we are to live that life all year long. We will not experience real growth without admitting and accepting the basic fact that God loves us. Admitting and accepting God’s love implies our willingness to change — to repent — and our willingness to live in accord with His love.

Therefore, to understand and accept God’s love includes our desiring to respond in love and fidelity to Him. This can be accomplished through prayer, in which we come to know and love God more deeply; through penance, which liberates us to love God more freely; through the frequent celebration of the Sacrament of Penance; and through participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which strengthens our intimate union with God. Another concrete way to accept and live out God’s love for us is trying to love one another and forgive each other. Sometimes this can be very difficult, so we must ask God for the strength we need to learn to imitate Him in loving and forgiving.

The basic fact that God loves us has implications as well for the tense times in which we currently find ourselves. God loves every human being and calls each person to respond to His love by loving Him and everyone He has created in His own image and likeness. But, in His love, God leaves each person free to respond or not to respond to this two-fold call to love. Because human beings are finite and experience the effects of original sin, they often do not obey God’s two-fold commandment to love. We know this to be true because we ourselves fail to obey and, therefore, sin. So, conflicts arise, within us and outside of us, and from these conflicts come oppression, injustice and war.

Our country is at war. We were all deeply saddened and keenly distressed that diplomatic efforts had broken down and that war had begun. As our Holy Father rightly reminds us, war is always a defeat for humanity. War means that the efforts to seek a true peace have failed and the ultimate welfare of humanity has not been secured in ways which would avoid conflict and war. However, peace is not simply the absence of armed conflict, it is the enduring harmony of men, women and children together in God’s love.

So, aware of God’s love for every human person on this earth, we pray that people everywhere, including those who, to all external observation, reject His love, would be converted and lay down their weapons. We pray that those in the coalition forces will be spared death and injury and return home safely; we pray too for the chaplains who accompany them. We pray for those already fallen and for their relatives and friends who mourn them. Surely, we pray for the people of Iraq, who have suffered so much already because of their leaders’ decisions, and who now continue to experience the ravages of war. Indeed, we pray that soon the Iraqi people may begin to rebuild a stable society, rooted in justice, so that they may live in lasting peace and authentic freedom. Finally, we pray, seeking ever the help of Our Lady through her rosary, that people in Iraq, in the Middle East and throughout the world will live, not in the grip of fear, but in the power of God’s love, which is so clearly the focus of today’s liturgy.

In today’s Gospel account, Jesus turns our attention to the clearest symbol of God’s ever-faithful love: the Crucifix. "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." Yes, lifted up before our eyes is God’s love made flesh, triumphing over evil, sin and death. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, we ask Him to draw us and all people closer to Him and to each other in love. In the end, His love — and His love alone — saves us!

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