LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #30

Love is a Covenant, and so...

Thursday, Fifth week in Lent - 6th April, 2017
Gen 17: 3-9; Jn 8: 51-59

Love is not a contract, it cannot be. A contract is a give and take - love is a pure giving. That is why God is love and God's love is unconditional and without limits. The Word explains to us today, if love is not a contract, what is it? It is a Covenant.

Love is a Covenant, so unchangeable - it does not change. Even if one of that parties of the covenant fails in his or her obligation the covenant does not change. That is why God's love is unchanging whether we measure up to it or not. God has made a covenant and God will not change.

Love is Covenant, so eternal - it is timeless, it is at the same time retrospective and futuristic. Eternal is not merely endless, it is without beginning or end. God's covenant is such, it encompasses the entire humanity regardless of time - that is how Jesus is the saviour of the entire humankind, not only to those who come after him. So Jesus is the saviour of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob of every single human person. The Jews find it difficult to understand because they looked at their religion as a contract, not as a covenant.

God's love is a covenant and God expects that our love for each others has to be a covenant too - loving everyone regardless of what we gain out of it; loving everyone without counting the cost; loving everyone without demanding the other to deserve it. Let our love be a covenant too!

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #29

Love, if true, sets free!

Wednesday, Fifth week in Lent - 5th April, 2017
Dan 3: 14-20,24-25,28; Jn 8: 31-42

Truth will set you free; true love will set you free; it will make you experience that freedom even inside a furnace. The Word speaks of true love and its capacity to set persons free. Faithfulness to One God was an act of love for the Jews - an act of unfailing love, inspired by the unending love of God. Today we see the story of the three men inside the furnace - the icons of love and faithfulness to God.

Jesus shows the same faithfulness in his fearlessness. He speaks against the compromises the Jews continue to make and accuses them of being slaves to their own compromises. In fact compromises lead to bondages, while true love and faithfulness lead to freedom. 

We have our daily furnaces to prove our love and faithfulness to God. The offer is clear and open: I will set you free, truth will set you free, true love will set you free, the Lord declares. Are we ready to be set free?