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Many years ago there was a song performed by a man
named Meatloaf. The chorus of the song went like this: "I want you, I
need you, but there ain't no way I'm ever going to love you. But don't
be sad, don't be sad, 'cause two out of three ain't bad."
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Now I am sure that Mr. Loaf is a very nice man,
however, sadly, those sentiments sum up much of our culture today. I
want, I need, but don't ask for a commitment. How different from our
Gospel reading today.
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You see, we humans are strange creatures, there is so
much we marvel at. Space travel, heart transplants, the Oscars... But
often we cease to marvel at, or we take for granted, the most marvelous
event in history. It is summed up in the Gospel just proclaimed: God so
loved the world that He gave His only son. That whoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life.
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The God who, in His love, gave us a gift: not a
lifeless thing, such as silver or gold, but a person. Not an angel, not
another patriarch like Abraham or another prophet like Jeremiah. God
gave us God's only son, God gave you and me the Very Son of God.
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The gift was a God‑man sold for silver by one of his
friends, delivered to His enemies by a cowardly Roman governor. The gift
was whipped like a dog, and crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, and
left to die between two criminals.
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The gift was a Christ raised from the tomb by the
power of God. A gift ‑ the whole package ‑ a gift because we have no
claim on Christ, and did not deserve Him. A gift because He was born for
you and me ‑ lived for you and me ‑ died and rose for you and me as if
you and I were the only man and woman in the world. All this because God
so loved the world
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But, we could say, if God so loved this world, why is
there so much pain, sickness and death? A great deal of suffering is
attributable to human ignorance, sin and stupidity, but that's not the
whole story. There are sources of human suffering for which we ourselves
are not responsible. We do not cause earthquakes or storms or droughts
or famines or tornados. While it is true that we produce some of our own
problems, not all of them are our own doing. They are simply built
into the structure of our world.
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Insurance companies call such things "acts of God." A
tornado is called an act of God: a lightning strike is an act of God. I
am not prepared to call them that, but neither do I know what to call
them ‑ they are certainly not acts of people. Human sin and human error
have nothing to do with them. They simply happen, and sometimes they
cause incredible suffering. In the face of such realities, can we really
believe that God so loved the world?
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Do you recall what Jesus said just before His declaration
that God so loved the world? He said, "Just as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." He was
announcing His own death on a cross, He knew He was going to be
crucified. He could see it coming, and even in the face of that horrible
prospect, Jesus dared to speak of God's great love for the world.
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It is because we are a suffering people that God
sent His Son. The passion of Christ did not end on the first Good Friday.
His passion surrounds you: in every cancer or AIDS ward, in the racism
that lurks just below a civilized surface. Wherever war or violence rule
a country.
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Christ is the only answer to the problems of the
world, but He can't do it alone. He no longer walks our streets
teaching, healing, and blessing, but we do. God needs men and women like yourselves to be other Christs.
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As we journey through life, it might be good to ask
ourselves from time to time, does His life, His love, ever come through
to people because of you? Do people ever see in your face the image of
Christ? The Christ who loves us to the end, to the very limit of love?
When those around you seek the love and compassion of Christ, can they
find it in you? Or do they have to turn away and look for another?
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Christ never turns away from us. He always says... I
need you, want you, and love you. Don't be sad: three out of three
ain't bad.
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Yours in Christ,
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Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
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