In today’s second reading, we see the words of St. Paul in which he exclaims that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and then lists examples. Now, if you look carefully, the list is strange.

What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

New American Bible. (2011). (Revised Edition., Ro 8:35). Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

One can easily ask the question, “How can any of this separate us from the love of Christ? Granted none of these are good things, but to compare them to the love of Christ seems to be a kind of apples and oranges comparison. If we modernize them, it would be like using the example of the drought in California in the line of what cannot separate us from the love of Christ? It does not really make sense. What would the drought have to do with the love of Christ?

The answer to that question comes to us first from the title of the letter. This is from Paul’s letter to the Romans. This means, of course, that the context is Paul is addressing those Christians who grew up in Roman culture.

Roman culture like all religions prior to Christ, except for Judaism, also called for a pleasing of the gods. If things went wrong in the empire, it may mean that the gods were angry. We see a similar idea in the Old Testament. But there God does not get angry because of improper sacrifice, He gets angry because people acted unjustly or practiced idolatry which led to injustice. There was no system to please God and make Him happy with us, except to do His will.

Our God is a god of love, indeed He is love. Therefore, nothing that happens in our  life is a sign that God stops loving us. Nothing. So Paul brings an end to any kind of system that leaves us outside of God’s love. When things go wrong in your life, they are not because God has stopped loving you. He may be disciplining you but this means He will  also form you and bring you to a new way of seeing things. Indeed, your greatest struggles, difficulties, tragedies and pain, when experienced while you remain faithful, lead you closer to God. The bible teaches that principle over and over again as do the saints.

Now, Paul adds another dimension. Once we understand that God’s love is constant and He is leading us to eternal life in Heaven and that we are part of the Kingdom of God, anything that happens is something we can use for the glory of God. Any form of opposition, disaster, disease, trouble, discomfort, whatever, it all can be used  for the glory of God and lead us closer to Christ. This changes our focus on everything and in Paul’s time changes the focus on everything in the life of the Romans.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote in Spe Salvi that the realization of unconditional love of God is something that is essential for the human. When we don’t have that understanding it is destructive.

Let me give you an example: I heard on the Dennis Prager show a man who is an author discussing one of the great struggles in our world today, alienation. He actually explained that if you look carefully many will tell you that bullying led to the school shootings we have seen over the past two decades. He said actually it is not bullying it is the alienation that is a result of bullying.It is the feeling of not being loved that is destructive, deadly. When we live in that feeling then everything else that goes wrong is compounded. However, when we realize that we are loved, then we can tolerate everything and this is Paul’s point.

“Smiley” by Pumbaa80 – Own work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

If we truly live in the faith, this dynamic is something we may not fully understand. We grew up in an era when the idea that God loves us was fairly well known. Many may remember the God loves you smiley stickers that you saw all the time in the 1970’s. So for us we may have a hard time understanding those who believe that God does not love us. However, for those who do not know God, who may not have embraced Christ, this concept of God’s constant love is foreign. This is the powerful dichotomy and it may be so foreign that people can not understand it all.

If we understand that God loves us period and calls us to return that love by doing his will, then this empowers us to do His will even in the midst of opposition, for we desire to do God’s will above all things.  This is what the saints did and do.

We Catholics will suffer much persecution because those who reject Christ will wage their own wars and they will and do wage wars against us, however, our faithfulness to the Gospel preaches the Kingdom in such a way that it will leave those who hate us defeated and silent while we grow closer to Christ. This is how we conquer.

God loves you is not just a saying from the days of bell bottom pants, Billy Beer and American Top 40, it is a powerful fact that changes our self understanding and enables us to serve God even under difficult circumstances.

God bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr