Crazy Love

First Reading:  2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23

In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy. Their enemies burnt the house of God,  tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects. Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon, where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons until the kingdom of the Persians came to power. All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah: “Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,  during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest  while seventy years are fulfilled.”

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and  may his God be with him!”

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Second Reading:  Ephesians 2:4-10

Brothers and sisters:

God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ — by grace you have been saved —, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance ,that we should live in them.

Gospel: John 3:14-21

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”For 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.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world,  but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

Reflection
By Fidji Rivera-Sarmiento

“For God SO (super-dooper mega-over) loved the world.”

Imagine our God during that scene when Adam and Eve were blaming each other when they ate the fruit.

Now imagine our God when He sent Jesus to the world.

For 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.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.

Let me give you a simpler analogy.

It is like I have a classroom of misbehaving students, the “black herd” of the school maybe. I must love them of course, having a big teacher kind of heart. Plus I am supposed to be their second mom, in loco parentis. But after all the behavior interventions, the constructive discipline I want to inculcate in them, still they misbehave. Repeatedly. So I pull out my guns. My A-HA moment, my grand finale strategy, my most outrageous technique is…

TO SEND MY ELDEST SON TO THIS CLASS!

Yes! Immerse him there! He will teach these students a thing or two about life.

Crazy, you say? Definitely. And for the life of me, I would never do that. Why, would you? They will eat my son alive! I would not throw my own son to the sharks. More so, it is like putting a drop of clean and clear water into the murky, stinky tubig-kanal. Simply futile.

But that’s how God loves this world. You call that CRAZY LOVE.

He was beaming with hope thinking that maybe, if He sends Jesus to earth, things will go better. He allowed His only Son Jesus to be human – to feel pain and anguish, to laugh with friends, to battle with temptations, to cry, to be crucified – because He loved us so well.

Crazy love. Because after all HE IS LOVE.

And He was perfectly right. Jesus made Him proud.

Immerse in that kind of love today. You have been gifted with the most precious gift. Don’t put it to waste.

Prayer

Father, today, we thank You for just being so awesome. Sorry if we set aside this sacrifice that Your Son Jesus had done for all of us. Sorry if we go about our day forgetting how much You have given up for our salvation. As the song goes, we WILL tell the world of this love; the greatest love the world has known. So we can search for those who have strayed and lead them back to You. Amen.