Infinite Love
By Steve Martin
Today’s Gospel provides us an opportunity for much reflection. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”1 As we hear these words our hearts should respond with awe and prayerful meditation.
We immediately picture the passion and death of Jesus Christ. We see Jesus hanging on a cross. He has been violently beaten, flogged, mocked, and spit upon. Many of his friends deserted him in fear. Nails pierce flesh, and blood streams out. Jesus cries out “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”2 Even as Jesus spoke these words of unfathomable love, “people stood by and watched; the rulers, meanwhile sneered at him.”3 “Even the soldiers jeered at him.”4 Soon the sky went dark, and the temple veil was torn in two. Then Jesus prayed a final prayer and spent his final breath.5
When we think of the striking contrast between the cruel death Jesus suffered and the innocent and loving life Jesus lived, what should we see with our hearts? In a Homily given on Sunday, September 14th, 2003, Pope John Paul II focused on this same question. “What do we see then when we bring our eyes to bear on the cross where Jesus was nailed? We contemplate the sign of God’s infinite love for humanity.”6
So… what should we see as we look at the cross? We should see the most precious and amazing expression of love that has ever been and ever will be. Our hearts should skip a beat and leap for joy that God, who is all good, showers us with such incredible love. Jesus walked willingly to the cross because of his great love for each and every one of us. He came to bring us into that intimate Communion with God which was lost in the Garden of Eden.
After the fall in the Garden of Eden, the gates of heaven were closed. God warned that death would come as a result of eating from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.7 Adam and Eve were tricked by the serpent and disobeyed God. They ate the forbidden fruit, and death entered into the world.
The Church teaches us that this sin of disobedience brought on grave consequences, not only for our first parents, but for all mankind. “By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings. Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendents human nature wounded by their own first sin.”8
God’s ever-flowing love did not allow this tragic rejection to interfere with his plan. Immediately after man’s fall from grace, God foreshadowed the coming Savior in what the Church calls the Protoevangelium (first Gospel). In Genesis 3:15 we have “the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.”9
Even at the very outset of sin’s entry into the world, God’s answer to the problem of sin was proclaimed. Christ came to pay the price man owed as a result of Adam and Eve’s choosing against God. He came to bring us back into union with the Holy Trinity. He did this by the sacrifice of his very life. He did this by accepting death on a cross.
It can be painful to look upon a crucifix and remember that it is because of me that Jesus endured such suffering. Still this is a pain I must not turn away from. I must embrace it and meditate on the mystery contained in it.
Salvation comes wholly through the cross of Christ. Without the cross I would not know God’s infinite unending love. Let us take the time during this Lenten Season to contemplate the sign of God’s infinite love for us all.
1 New American Bible, Gospel of John 3:16
2 New American Bible, Gospel of Luke 23:34
3 New American Bible, Gospel of Luke 23:35
4 New American Bible, Gospel of Luke 23:36
5 New American Bible, Gospel of Luke 23:44-46
6 http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/2003/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20030914_bratislava_en.html
7 New American Bible, Genesis 2:16-17
8 Catechism of the Catholic Church, pg 4160417b
9 Catechism of the Catholic Church, pg 410