Showing all posts in 3 Minutes for God the Father

Indeed, one would think that in all those parts of the world that have been blessed with the announcement of the Christian faith, as well as the regions marked by Judaism and those where there is knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, God should be recognised as loving Father.

Certainly this is partly the case… But does this knowledge really go deep? Is the encounter with God truly the experience that rejoices the heart and permeates everything; the experience that sets us in motion to speak of this God to all people?

In the book of Hosea (11:1,3-4) the Lord says:

“When Israel was a child I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. I myself taught Ephraim to walk, I myself took them by the arm, but they did not know that I was the one caring for them, that I was leading them with human ties, with leading-strings of love, that, with them, I was like someone lifting an infant to his cheek, and that I bent down to feed him.”

Even more evidently the fatherhood of God is manifested in the coming of his Son into the world: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9).

What would happen if people were to meet God as He really is, if they were to become aware of His fatherly love, if all the false images they still have of Him were to be overcome and people were to really come into contact with Him?

Certainly many who do not yet know God or who have wrong conceptions about Him would turn to Him. This would dispel the idea of an excessively severe God, but also that overly sweet image of God which presents Him to us as if our Father did not take man’s sin seriously.

Many would return home, leaving behind the powers of darkness. God’s light would spread and true brotherhood would emerge among men, under the loving gaze of the Heavenly Father.

A dream? A utopia?

No! This is what God wants:

“May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.” (Jn 17:21).

Why, beloved Father, do you want us to know you, honour you and love you, as you told Mother Eugenia Ravasio? If You possess fullness in Yourself and lack nothing…

But You Yourself give us the answer:
“It is not because I need My creature and his adoration that I desire to be known, honoured and loved; the only reason why I am stooping down to him is to save him and give him a share in My glory.”

Now I understand it better: the reason You want to be known, honoured and loved is so that You can grant us all that You have prepared for us. So in You we find selfless love; a love that gives itself even though it has no need of us.

It is necessary that we first learn to understand this love more deeply. That is why You mention first of all that we must know You. It is the knowledge of how you really are, free from false images of yourself.

To know You is life; moreover, eternal life, just as Your Son taught us:

“Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (Jn 17:3)

And the more we come to know You, the more You can communicate to us. To love You means to follow You in all that You entrust to us, to keep Your commandments, to love Your precepts, to give our hearts to You and thus to correspond to Your love.

Then love grows without limits and the words of Jesus become true: “Anyone who has will be given more” (Mt 13:12).

Then nothing will be difficult any more, because love will sustain us.

To honour you, Father, is the most natural duty of love for your children, for we have received everything from your hands.

The angels and saints also know this, with whom we bow before you in joy and reverence, for you are the one true God.

And in honouring your glory, we become more and more aware of your majesty and rid ourselves of all recklessness and frivolity.

What great mercy you had towards us in sending us your Son Jesus! With incomparable love you set your gaze upon us, who so often run away from you or even turn against you, who offend you with our sins or simply forget you. You, on the other hand, are always present and look at us with love. You care attentively for us, because you do not want us to lead a meaningless life, let alone to be lost forever.

Even the Creation that surrounds us sings the hymn of your beauty, and what great delight it can evoke in us as we discover the inexhaustible variety that you have prepared for us! Is it not so that the whole of Creation is offered to us like the table that a loving woman prepares for her loved ones, only more beautiful?

And if the gift of Creation is an immeasurable token of your love, how much more do you give us in Jesus!

And He loves you with all the ardour of His Heart. There is nothing He desires more fervently than to make Your love known to men. There is nothing He desires more ardently than to glorify You and to fulfil Your Will.

In his farewell discourse, raising his eyes to heaven, Jesus testifies: “I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do… I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them” (Jn 17:4,26).

In Jesus, you reveal to us in all its fullness your great “yes” to us; a “yes” that accepted suffering for our sake, to glorify you and to redeem us.

In Jesus we recognise you and He leads us to you: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father (…) No one can come to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:9,6).

THE WORD “FAHTER”

“Father” – what a wonderful word Jesus gave us to make the Eternal God understandable to us.

God is not just invisible or even unreachable for us! We can trust the reports of the Holy Scriptures, which tell us about Him. God wants to be very close to us; and in many ways He wants to make us understand that He loves us and wants to live with us – His children.

This is expressed in the word “Father”, and it is able to speak to our heart in depth. In the word “Father” is expressed a whole YES to us human beings and to our existence. God never takes this back! Even if we reject His love for us, His YES remains over us. It invites us to turn back, to come home, not to close ourselves to His love for time and eternity.

Our Father has spoken this YES to us humans irrevocably in His Son Jesus. In doing so, He calls us out of our remoteness from God and leads us into His closeness.

„For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16), Holy Scripture testifies to us. In Jesus He gave us His heart.

The way is now open to the heart of the Father. The Son has taken away all obstacles at the cost of His own life. If we believe in Him and receive forgiveness of our sins the Father’s love can come to us without obstacles and live in the security and joy of the children of God.

What hinders us to follow this invitation? We should set out with confidence! The Father awaits us because He is our Father….