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A Love that Dissolves All Sorrows

5th Monday in the Ordinary Time
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes


IN TODAY'S GOSPEL (Matthew 9:14-15) the disciples of John the Baptist sought understanding their confusion in watching the disciples of the Lord did not follow the usual Jewish fasting practice. Jesus told them that God does not need fasting but rejoicing--"How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?"
 
If we really come to think of it, fasting and sacrifices had not been made for God's benefit but for our benefit. God does not need these; we do. Fasting and sacrifices strengthen our mind and body, and in the process strengthen our faith. But the God of love and mercy does not need either--"What I want is mercy, not sacrifice" (v. 13; 12:7; Hosea 6:6).
 
Our God of love is also the God of Happiness and Rejoicing. Because God loves us with unconditional and faithful love, we have no reason to feel unloved. The only tears that love draws from our heart is that of joy, happiness, and of rejoicing. A sorrowful "love" is an empty love, a love that failed to live its nature. We may find so much sorrow and pain in the eyes of our brothers and sisters--and that may bring sympathy and hurts of mercy in our hearts--but love does not stop there, because love cannot be itself if all it could bring to others is the spirit of sorrow and devastation. Love has to, and can, transcend the sorrows of this earth and overcome the pain it inspires, in order to bring sparkles of joy in the eyes of the beloved. That's the love that God brings to us, offers to us, shares to us, that we too may be able to spread His love through us to others.
 
It is in this truth that our salvation rests. It is in this truth that our transformation from sorrowful sins into rejoicing sons and daughters of God occurs. If we let God's love consume our entire being, that love will dissolve all the remnants of sorrow that sin brings into our soul, and replace it with the rejoiceful heart of a soul bathing in the ever-envigorating love of God. It is the truth that has been meant to set us free.
 
FATHER, thank you for the ever-flowing love that you pour upon us each moment of our lives. Thank you for the privilege, for inviting us to be channels of your love to others. Let it be so with our lives. We know that only your love made it possible for us to exist and to serve you even more in joy and rejoicings.
 
LORD, thank you for revealing to us the unfathomable love of the Father. Thank you for showing us in your person how limitless the Father loves us. Thank you also for your love that made our salvation from the bondage of Satan possible and inevitable. Your sacrifice purchased for us the Grace that we lost due to our own rebelliousness and folly. Thank you for restoring us back to the graces of the Father, and in so doing reopening to us the door towards Heaving, our only true home. Amen.
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