February 16

The Love Of Christ For Us!

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. — Phil 2:5-7

The Lord Jesus stripped Himself of everything save Love, that He might more readily meet each human soul on its own level. Being in the form of God, and equal with God, He emptied Himself, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, for our sakes. He stripped Himself of all that He might give to us fair clothing instead of the fading fig-leaves of apologies and excuse. He descended so low as to put the Everlasting Arms beneath the most hapless and hopeless. He desired to get so low, that none could get lower. He was set on proclaiming His Gospel so that even the dying thief might enter Paradise, and that not one prodigal in all the human family should think that he had sunk too low or gone so far as to be excluded from the hope of salvation. “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.”

Surely it is inexcusable that any soul of man should evade the love of God, when the Son of His Love has made so great an effort to acquaint us, not only with its height and breadth and length, but with its depth. Why are we so cold, so unmoved, so inert? The Apostle speaks of the love of Christ constraining him, of the love of God shed abroad within us and flooding our heart. How is it that, with God’s love so near, so close, so easily within our reach, we are so apathetic and irresponsive?

The cure is, in part, the consciousness that God’s Love is all around us, which we cultivate by meditation. “Thy Omnipotence,” says St. Augustine, “is not remote from us even when we are remote from Thee”; and we may say as much of His Love. Even when we feel cold and distant, we are beset by God’s love behind and before, and His grace is overshadowing us with infinite tenderness. Do not try to kindle love by thinking of the Cross as far away back in the past, but by musing and meditating on Christ’s love as being as tender and real as when He said to His Mother, “ Behold thy son,” and to John, “ Behold thy Mother.”

Jesus knows the need of our heart, and is even now close at hand to lead us by the Holy Spirit into the realisation of His Love. Let us open our nature to the Blessed Comforter, and He will not be slack in His response. “The fruit of the Spirit is Love.”

Prayer

May the Holy Spirit so fill my heart with the consciousness of the love of Christ my Lord, that there may be no room in my life for anything inconsistent with His love. Amen.