Facing the Challenges of Divine Love

He went away sad. (Mark 10:22)

I really thought that I had done all that Jesus was asking of me when I converted from a wayward life to a fervent Catholic life. I thought that I had arrived at a safe harbor now that I was striving to live as His faithful disciple. So, when I sensed a call to abandon all things and go to the seminary, I asked, “Lord, is my conversion not enough? Is it not enough to keep your commandments now? Why this call to a radical way of life as a religious priest?”

That began my long journey in experiencing Jesus’ love. His love is both unconditionally accepting and constantly challenging. His love always accepts us, broken and sinful as we are. It is ever ready to forgive, heal, and make us His own again. But this love also challenges us to grow and mature in love for Him until we begin to love like Him. We can face the challenges of life only when we are convinced of God’s irrevocable love for us and see those challenges as Jesus calling us to mature in our love for Him.

This is what the rich young man in Mk 10:17-27 failed to grasp in his encounter with Jesus. He first failed to grasp the love that Jesus had for him: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Jesus then challenged him to go beyond merely keeping the commandments faultlessly, instructing him to “go, sell what you have, and give to the poor…then come, follow me.” He was being challenged to become more like Jesus who, “for our sake became poor although He was rich so that by His poverty we might become rich” (2 Cor 9:9). Jesus loved the man before, during, and after challenging him and seeing him walk away. But ignoring this accepting love and rejecting the challenge of love to mature in love, the rich young man walked away from Jesus sad.

For us to avoid sadness in the face of life’s challenges, we must find a way to hold on to these two aspects of divine love. As Jesus commanded us, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you. Remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). There are three sure ways that we can abide in Jesus’ love for us while responding to His challenge to grow in our love for Him.

Firstly, we must become truly prayerful souls. Prayer gives God a chance to transform us and our values. We begin to value things as God would have us value them. We gain insight into the concrete actions to take in the face of life’s choices: “I prayed, and prudence was given to me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” We begin to love God and the things of God appropriately, i.e. to love Him above all things and to love all things for His sake: “I preferred her [eternal wisdom] to scepter and throne, and deemed all riches nothing in comparison with her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her” (Wis 7:7-11). It is only through fervent prayer that we can sacrifice passing earthly things for eternal treasures.

In this regard, the rich young man did not prove to be a truly prayerful soul. He did not trust in Jesus to provide what was needed. He did not ask Jesus for help in meeting the challenge of love. He trusted in his own wealth and in his own ability. He preferred his wealth to the eternal treasures of heaven. He lacked both the prudence and the wisdom that comes from prayer. His material attachments were stronger than his desire to please God.

Secondly, we must pray and meditate with the word of God. Our prayer must go beyond merely asking God for help or to meet our needs. The word of God does not only reveal God’s heart of love to us, but also reveals to us the true nature of our hearts and their desires: “Indeed the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart” (Heb 4:12-13).

The word of God allows us to know the true nature of our hearts. We get to see our true selfishness, sinfulness, greed, insensitivity, worldliness, etc. We come to see how far we are from the holiness of the One who has called us to belong to Him and to follow Him. We will also sense God’s love in our nothingness and how badly we need to be in communion with God. This will help us to slowly shed any form of entitlement mentality on our part and begin to see all things as gifts of God’s love for us. Such humility from the word of God opens our hearts to witness the power of God’s grace to break any attachment to earthly creatures.

Lastly, we must pray with the Blessed Virgin Mary always. No human person experienced the accepting love of God more than Mama Mary. She was triple loved and accepted by God as the admirable daughter of God the Father, faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit, and beloved Mother of God the Son. Her sinless heart soaked in every ounce of God’s love for her and held onto it tenaciously.

Also, no human person responded faithfully to the constant challenges of divine love like Mary did. From the moment she pronounced her “Be it done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38), she faced numerous challenges of love. She advanced in her faith and love till she stood at the foot of the cross, consenting and uniting herself to the suffering of her Son in loving obedience to the Father.

Mary is that truly prayerful soul who held on to God’s accepting love for her as she responded to the challenge of love. The word of God with all its power and beauty was ever present in her heart: “She kept all these things pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). That is why she gained this indirect praise from Jesus, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Lk 11:28). How badly we need to tap into that fullness of grace that is in the heart of the Blessed Virgin and share in her prayerful attitude to the word of God.

We too face many challenges in our life with Jesus. We can feel that we are stretched and have reached our limit in giving. We may even lack the will to sacrifice anything for God. Maybe we are experiencing unsurmountable challenges in our life as disciples. Maybe we have suffering and pain that linger endlessly. We may find it difficult to love and forgive someone who has hurt us. We may be faced with injustice or persecution.

It is easy to give in to sadness when we interpret these challenges as God abandoning us or punishing us for our sins. In reality, God is lovingly challenging us to love like Him as He challenged all the saints, beginning with Mary, His Mother. That is why Mary, cause of our joy, can help us to avoid and overcome sadness. We only need to humbly ask her help to help us respond in action to the many challenges of love while holding onto our unconditional acceptance by divine love.

Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash