“As you look
upon God’s love, it will communicate itself to you and will renew your entire
being. It is in sensing oneself to be loved that one learns to love.
Self-centeredness reigns only because we are ignorant of God’s love: “Anyone
who does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8). You will love as you have
been loved. You will love God, because God has first loved you. You will love
your neighbor, because God has loved you both. Do you glimpse the new life that
this change opens up for you?
I see you as “imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1), no longer living for anything except to pour out around you the love with which God has filled your hearts. I see you, following the example of Christ who loved you, “going about doing good” (see Acts 10:38) and finding your joy in privation, in fatigue, and in the sacrifices of charity. I see you “controlled by the love of Christ” (see 2 Corinthians 5:14); weaned from your self-will, from the love of money, and from the empty pleasures of the world; consoling the afflicted, relieving the poor, visiting the sick, and carrying Jesus Christ and all his blessings with you wherever you go.
Then the image and resemblance of God will have been formed anew in your heart! Then you will dwell in God and God in you! If being loved is the life of our soul, to love is its joy. If being loved is all the doctrine of the gospel, then to love is all of its ethic. To love as we have been loved is heaven on earth until such time as it becomes heaven in heaven.”
— Adolphe Monod, an undivided love: loving and living for Christ
I see you as “imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1), no longer living for anything except to pour out around you the love with which God has filled your hearts. I see you, following the example of Christ who loved you, “going about doing good” (see Acts 10:38) and finding your joy in privation, in fatigue, and in the sacrifices of charity. I see you “controlled by the love of Christ” (see 2 Corinthians 5:14); weaned from your self-will, from the love of money, and from the empty pleasures of the world; consoling the afflicted, relieving the poor, visiting the sick, and carrying Jesus Christ and all his blessings with you wherever you go.
Then the image and resemblance of God will have been formed anew in your heart! Then you will dwell in God and God in you! If being loved is the life of our soul, to love is its joy. If being loved is all the doctrine of the gospel, then to love is all of its ethic. To love as we have been loved is heaven on earth until such time as it becomes heaven in heaven.”
— Adolphe Monod, an undivided love: loving and living for Christ
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