Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
The love of God for man should never cease to amaze us. We have done and can do nothing for Him. He is entirely and supremely happy in Himself and neither needs nor wants anything outside of Himself. Humanity has offered God innumerable sins in exchange for the gift of existence. Yet, despite it all, we can say with certainty that God loves us. He loves us so much that Jesus explicitly tells us that His love for us is similar to the love God the Father has for God the Son. A love so powerful that it is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This fact should stun us to our core. Such an unfathomable love is beyond our merits and our comprehension. The saints in heaven forever enjoy and contemplate that magnificent love.
Remain in My Love
Jesus then tells us to “Remain in His love” by keeping His commandments. By this, He means that we must avoid sin. Sin, especially mortal sin, is incompatible with the love of God because it is a rejection of God. By sin, we choose the creature over the Creator. When done with full knowledge, full consent, and about a grave matter, this incompatibility is so great as to completely drive out the love of God from our souls. It does not extinguish God’s love for us, but removes its activity from our souls. Simply put, the sinner is no longer “in God’s love” though God still loves him.
Grow in My Love
While avoiding sin is enough to keep us in God’s love, it is not enough to enable us to grow in God’s love. For this, we must follow not only Jesus’ commands, but also His counsels. We must imitate His way of life, take up our cross and deny ourselves. We must respond generously to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We must consciously choose virtue, even when it is difficult, and rigorously reject any inclination towards vice. By doing this, we will advance steadily in the love of God and share evermore in His joy.
