" I BELIEVE IN LOVE" Day One, Part One----Love For Love

[Dawn Marie]

Excerpts from the book “I believe in love”.

By Father Jean C.J. d’Elbee

DAY 1

 

LOVE FOR LOVE

 

I HAVE ENTITLED THIS FIRST CONFERENCE “LOVE FOR LOVE”.  GOD LOVED US FIRST THAT WE MIGHT LOVE HIM.  THAT IS THE EXPLANATION OF IT ALL: THE CREATION, THE INCARNATION, CALVARY, THE RESURRECTION, AND THE EUCHARIST.

ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE WHO, WHILE LEANING ON THE BREAST OF JESUS IN THE CENACLE, PERCEIVED THE BEATING OF HIS HEART, AND AT THE SAME TIME, THE SECRETS OF HIS LOVE, HAS REVEALED THEM ALL TO US IN HIS FIRST EPISTLE, WHEN HE SAYS, “DEUS CARITAS EST”: GOD IS LOVE.

 

AND BECAUSE GOD IS CHARITY HE GAVE THE WORLD HIS BELOVED SON: “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON”.

THAT FIRST SIN, REJECTION OF AN INFINITE LOVE, COULD NOT BE REPAIRED BY ANY, BUT AN INFINITE LOVE.  THE WORD OF GOD BECAME INCARNATE IN ORDER THAT LOVE MIGHT TRIUMPH IN HIM AND THROUGH HIM.

 

JESUS BOUGHT A TWO FOLD RIGHT ON CALVARY AT THE PRICE OF ALL HIS BLOOD: THE RIGHT FOR HIM TO LOVE US IN SPITE OF, OR EVEN BECAUSE OF OUR SINS, OUR UNWORTHINESS; AND THE RIGHT, FOR US, TO LOVE HIM FROM THE DEPTHS OF OUR IMMENSE MISERY AND TO CONTEMPLATE HIS DIVINE ATTRIBUTES, INCLUDING HIS JUSTICE, WITHIN HIS INFINITE MERCY.

ST. PAUL, SPEAKING OF CALVARY, FINDS ONLY ONE PHRASE FOR THIS: “THE FOLLY OF THE CROSS”. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND BROUGHT ABOUT ALL THESE MYSTERIES, WHICH WE CAN SURMISE IN A WORD : BETHLEHEM, NAZARETH, GETHSEMANE, CALVARY, THE EUCHARIST---

THE INCARNATION: AT BETHLEHEM, THE IMMENSE GOD, WHOM HEAVEN AND EARTH CAN NOT CONTAIN, A TINY INFANT LYING ON THE HAY IN A MANGER;

NAZARETH: THE LIFE OF GOD ON EARTH FOR THIRTY YEARS---A LIFE OF OBEDIENCE, POVERTY, OF SILENCE, IN TOTAL SELF-EFFACEMENT.

 

AT GETHSEMANE HE APPEARS BEFORE HIS FATHER COVERED WITH OUR SINS---HE WHO “BORE OUR SINS IN HIS BODY”.  HE OBTAINS FOR US THE RIGHT TO APPEAR ONE DAY BEFORE THE FATHER COVERED WITH THE BLOOD FLOWING FROM EVERY PORE OF HIS BODY UNDER THE PRESSURE OF HIS AGONY AND SHED ON CALVARY THE LAST DROP.

SEE THIS SUBLIME EXCHANGE: JESUS TAKES OUR SINS UPON HIMSELF, AND WE MAKE HIS MERITS OUR OWN. AND THE FATHER RECEIVES US AS IF WE WERE HIS BELOVED SON, THROUGH INFINITE MERCY, BUT IN ALL JUSTICE.

 

SO SAID LITTLE THERESE, " IN THE EVENING OF THIS LIFE I SHALL APPEAR BEFORE YOU WITH EMPTY HANDS. IT IS JUST THIS---TO FIND MYSELF AT MY DEATH WITH EMPTY HANDS----THAT GIVES ME JOY, FOR HAVING NOTHING I SHALL RECEIVE EVERYTHING FROM GOD.”

 

AFTER GETHSEMANE CAME THE HORRIBLE SCOURGING, THE CROWNING WITH THORNS, AND CALVARY.  JESUS LOOKED WITH MERCIFUL LOVE AT THOSE WHO HAD WOUNDED HIS HANDS AND HIS FEET, BECAUSE THOSE WOUNDS WERE TO BE THE DOORS TO HEAVEN----EVEN FOR THOSE WHO HAD MADE THEM.  AND HE SAID “FATHER FORGIVE THEM, FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO”.

AS IF THAT WERE NOT ENOUGH, HE INVENTED THE EUCHARIST: A GOD WHO MAKES HIMSELF INTO BREAD, A LITTLE HOST, IN ORDER TO DESCEND ONTO OUR LIPS AND INTO OUR HEARTS, TO BRIDGE ALL DISTANCE BETWEEN HIMSELF AND US.

 

LOVE IS EXACTING; LOVE IS ABSOLUTE.

 

WE HAVE SPOKEN OF HIS LOVE FOR EVERYONE, LET US NOW SPEAK OF HIS LOVE FOR YOU PERSONALLY.

WHY ARE YOU HERE?  WHY WERE YOU BORN INTO A CHRISTIAN FAMILY? WHY WERE YOU BAPTIZED? WHY HAVE YOU LEARNED TO KNOW JESUS, TO LOVE HIM SINCE YOUR EARLIEST CHILDHOOD? BECAUSE HE HAS CHOSEN YOU AND PREFERRED YOU FROM ALL ETERNITY, TO HEAP THESE GRACES UPON YOU.

RECALL YOUR CONFIRMATION, FIRST COMMUNION, THAT FIRST UNION OF YOUR SOUL WITH HIM; YOUR INFIDELITIES, SMALL OR GREAT, JESUS PICKING YOU UP AGAIN, BECOMING FOR YOU SO MANY TIMES THE GOOD SHEPHERD, RUNNING AFTER HIS LITTLE LAMB, CARRYING IT BACK IN HIS ARMS; THE ABSOLUTION YOU HAVE RECEIVED SO MANY TIMES IN THE SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION.

WHY AGAIN DO YOU HAVE THIS GRACE OF BEING CHOSEN TO BE PART OF A CHRISTIAN ELITE?BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN LOVED WITH PREDILECTION.

IF YOU HAVE BEEN LOVED LIKE THIS, YOU MUST LOVE IN RETURN, GIVE LOVE FOR LOVE.  “I HAVE LOVED YOU, YOU MUST LOVE.  I HAVE GIVEN YOU MY HEART WITHOUT RESERVE, IN ORDER TO HAVE YOUR HEART WITHOUT RESERVE.  I HAVE PUT NO LIMIT ON MY LOVE, YOU MUST PUT NO LIMIT ON YOURS”.

 

“LOVE, THEREFORE, IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW,” SAID ST. PAUL.  AND ST. AUGUSTINE SAYS“LOVE AND DO WHAT YOU WILL”.

 

LISTEN TO ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS AFFIRMING THAT “THE SMALLEST MOVEMENT OF PURE LOVE IS WORTH MORE TO THE CHURCH THAN ALL WORKS PUT TOGETHER”.

 

A HOLY SOUL SAID TO OUR SAVIOR, “WHY DO YOU COME TO EARTH LIKE THIS TO SEEK LOVE?  YOU HAVE IN HEAVEN YOUR ANGELS AND YOUR SAINTS WHO LOVE YOU WITH AN UNSUSTAINED LOVE, WHILE, HERE BELOW, ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS LIKE A STAIN TO YOUR EYES.”

AND JESUS ANSWERED, “I COME TO EARTH TO SEEK LOVE, TO BEG FOR LOVE, BECAUSE I THIRST FOR LOVE FREELY GIVEN”.

HERE ON EARTH LOVE PROVES ITSELF BY FREE CHOICE.  JESUS WANTS TO BE CHOSEN, TO BE PREFERRED. […] LET US USE OUR TIME IN EXILE TO CHOOSE HIM, PREFERRING HIM TO EVERYTHING ELSE.

[Alan]

Amen

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Amen. 

[Alley]

With love +

[Nicola Wansink]

AMEN.

[Luci Hagarty]

Thank you Dawn Marie.  Absolutely beautiful.

[Jane Darrow]

Thank you.

[AnnaMaria]

AMEN

[bernadette szczepkowski]

Blessed be God+

[AURA CID L F FERREIRA DE BRITTO]

" I SHALL APPEAR BEFORE GOD WITH EMPTY HANDS,...

FOR HAVING NOTHING I SHALL RECEIVE EVERYTHING FROM HIM.”

† Amen†

[Gloria]

AND JESUS ANSWERED, “I COME TO EARTH TO SEEK LOVE, TO BEG FOR LOVE, BECAUSE I THIRST FOR LOVE FREELY GIVEN”.