See What Love!

“See what love…”

These are three of my favorite words in Scripture. See what love! I really think these words from John’s first letter (from the Second Reading for the Fourth Sunday of Easter) could be a great mantra for us to repeat often throughout the day: See what love!

There are so many reasons to shout this to the rooftops and to whisper it in the quiet of our hearts.

To begin with, as John says, See what love God has given us! He makes us his children! That means we are in on the inheritance of God: everlasting life in perfect love.  See what love, John tells us.  We will be like God: we will be Love through and through. In the end we shall be nothing but Love. Wow. Indeed. See what love!

And every one of us could have our own long lists:

*I awoke today, with another opportunity to love and be loved:  See what love!

*I have family and friends who know me completely and love me faithfully: See what love!

*I can live awake and aware of the astonishing beauty of the miraculous world all around me: See what love!

*My list and your list could go on and on with all the personal details of our lives—even the difficult moments.  

We can surely say:

*I’ve been through struggles and suffering and have come out wiser and stronger, strengthened and supported by the Good Shepherd ever with and within me: See what love!

We can say that with great confidence because Jesus himself today says the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  We know he is talking here about the Cross: the sign and power of God’s faithful enduring love for you and me and all. The Cross is the sign that God has gone with us through every struggle, every suffering, every fear, every wound.  As Fleming Rutledge puts it the Cross reveals that “the uttermost depth of human misery has been plumbed by the incarnate Lord,” the Good Shepherd. Indeed, See what love!

These are truly words to relish, to let sink in, to root our lives in. And they are also words to live. Because we all know that our world is still filled with so much suffering and pain. There are so many living in egregious unjust poverty, hungry for food and drink; so many living in fear of when the next bomb will drop and longing for an end to war; so many searching for safe place to live for their families. And, of course, there are so many who are hungry and thirsty for love. So many wanting to belong, but feeling rejected because of their sexual orientation, their color, their handicap, their race, their personality, the list goes on and on.  They long to see what love!

That’s why the followers of Jesus—you and me—not only relish the love we constantly receive but we hurry to give it away to all, especially those suffering. The Good Shepherd continues to “plumb the depths of human misery” through us. As Douglas John Hall puts it, the church, the followers of Jesus, are to understand themselves as the community of the cross, the community that suffers with (com-passion), the community that willingly bears the stigma of he passion in service to others.  In other words, a church that looks and acts like its Shepherd.

So, my friends, remember: see what love! Try to live awake and aware today and this week to all the ways the Good Shepherd is with you, loving you.

And also: See what love needs to be lived and shared with those around you still longing to know and experience the God who plumbs the depths of our lives to fill them with love.

See what love!

Father Liam