love then, consists in this

JMJ

AMDG

You are loved.

Really.

You don't get a choice in that. You are loved beyond the farthest reaches of human comprehension by a God Who allowed Himself to suffer all the small indignities of human life; Who allowed Himself to be beaten into a bloody mess and crowned with thorns and kicked and spat on and nailed to a piece of wood because He wanted to prove to you--you--that He loves you. He wants to be with you--you forever. For all eternity.

It didn't have to cost Him anything. He's God, after all. He could have waved His hand and started over. He could have made it so that Eden just didn't matter. He could have shrugged and let the world spin out its days without hope of Him.

Except, He couldn't.

He couldn't, because He loves you, and you can run from that love all you want. I ran for a long, long time, but He is faster and He will always catch up with you, because darling, He's God. He's wildly, passionately in love with you and He can and He will do whatever is necessary to make sure you know that.

The book of Hosea is often forgotten. It’s towards the back of the Old Testament, and it tells the story of Hosea, who married the harlot Gomer. Gomer left Hosea but he went after her and bought her back with everything he had.

And the thing is, this isn't just a story about an Old Testament couple who could have used counseling. No, this, like everything in the Bible, means something. In this case, it's an analogy for the way that God loves Israel. It’s an analogy for the way God loves the world; the way God loves the Church; the way God loves you. 

And in Hosea 2, God says to Israel---God says to you: "I will espouse you to me forever; I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity and you shall know the Lord." --Hosea 2:21-22

And in Isaiah 62:4-5, He says, "No more shall men call you "Forsaken," or your land "Desolate," but you shall be called "My Delight," and your land "Espoused." For the Lord delights in you, and makes your land his spouse. As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you."

Or did you ever read the Song of Songs? Where He calls you beautiful? (Songs 1:15; 4:1), where He calls you "as awe-inspiring as bannered troops"? (Songs 6:4), where he calls you His beloved? (Songs 2:10)

Or what about 1 John 4:10--love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and has sent His Son as an offering for our sins.

And those verses are by no means comprehensive; the love story that is you and God is written all over the pages of the Bible, from Genesis where he breathed life into humankind so that we might know Him, to Revelation, where He promises us glory if we will only accept His love.

Dear heart, God loves you as His bride.

There is no reason why He had to make humans. God is perfect in and of Himself, and He could have gone on being Himself and not ever made anything.

Except He didn't want to, because that meant He never would have made you, and he is deeply, intensely in love with you. 

He loves you as a man loves his bride, whether you are man or woman, married or single, young or old. He gives you jewelry in raindrops and lightning and stars; He gives you flowers in every roadside blossom or greenhouse or forest; He gives you Himself, body, blood, soul and divinity, in every Mass.

Love, then, consists in this: a God Who would die for you for no other reason than because He loves you. He died for your sins because He doesn't want to spend eternity without you. He is waiting for you in the Eucharist because He doesn't want you to be alone. 

The greatest love story of all time is 

contained in a tiny white Host

--Fulton Sheen

Maybe you don't feel loved right now. Maybe you've never felt that loved. Or maybe you have close friends and a strong family who care about you deeply, but His love is better than anything and it is far, far better than any love we can have between any two humans.

St. Augustine wrote, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O Lord,", so go, and let Him give you rest. Go, and let Him love you. 

Let Him love you, dear heart. Let him fill every corner of your dented, dusty soul, and let Him make you new again. Go to Confession. Sit with Him in Adoration. 

Let Him love you.

Because He does. And you can never, ever change that. 

********

note--this is probably mostly for the women. Or maybe it's for men too. I’m very much a woman, and so I don't have the inside scoop on how men think. If you're a man and this speaks to you, that is awesome, and blessed be God. But if you're a man and you think I’m crazy or that this is really weird, I'm sorry, but this wasn't really written with you in mind.