The other day my sister shared the below. At the moment I don’t recall if it was in email, Facebook or….
Just this morning I read it. What a beautiful thing, the Depth of God’s Love, is truly what we are all called to. Something contrary to what society teaches us, and something difficult to live. But it is with Grace that we must try. Thank you for the reminder. I needed it!
What does it truly mean to grasp God’s love? Not just to hear about it or talk about it, but to embody it and allow it to shape how we interact with others. Agape love—God’s unconditional, selfless love—is limitless and unmerited. Yet, how often do we find ourselves offering something less?
Sometimes, our version of love is selective, offered only to a specific circle or clique, while we withhold it from those who don't fit our preferences. Or perhaps we struggle with forgiveness, holding grudges or bitterness toward someone because of their actions or choices.
But Jesus calls us to something higher: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:44-45). Agape love doesn’t play favorites, doesn’t keep records of wrongs, and doesn’t seek retaliation. It reaches beyond our comfort zones, requiring us to love not just the easy-to-love, but also the difficult, the different, and even the hostile.
Think about it: Do we extend God’s love to the coworker who offended us? The neighbor who acts unkindly? The family member who made choices we don’t agree with? God’s love doesn’t hinge on whether someone deserves it, and ours shouldn’t either.
Agape love is welcoming. It’s patient when others fall short. It seeks reconciliation instead of revenge. It’s the love we see in Jesus, who prayed for those who nailed Him to the cross. It’s the love that turns strangers into family and enemies into opportunities to reflect God’s grace.
Challenge Take a moment today to reflect: Who in your life have you struggled to love fully? Maybe it’s someone who has hurt you or someone who is difficult to connect with. Ask God to help you see that person through His eyes and to give you the strength to show them His love in action.
Remember, the world will know we are His disciples not by how much Scripture we can quote, but by how well we love (John 13:35). Will you take the step to love as He loves? One may ask, what is Agape? A term not often heard in daily conversation. According to Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J.
AGAPE: The most distinctively Christian form of love. Used by Christ to describe the love among the persons of the Trinity, it is also the love he commanded his followers (including you and me) to have for one another (John 13:34-35). It is totally selfless love, which seeks not one's own advantage but only to benefit or share with another.
I look at myself, the life I lead, my everyday actions and I must ask, when was the last time that I did something solely for the benefit of another. It is hard to be so selfless, to act with no regard for personal gain, recognition, advancement or ego. It is human nature to act for the betterment of self. Or is it fallen human nature?
In the celebration of the Eucharist, we hear the words of our Lord, "DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME". This is our call to Agape. To love with no intent but the benefit of our neighbors, our enemies, the unloved, the forgotten. It is the call of Jesus that we each should move beyond our fallen nature and live selflessly. To love as Jesus loved.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.