Joyful, joyful: Our God loves us

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Kaiti Anderson

How many times have we heard the line "God is love"? Probably thousands.

But how often do we actually listen and attempt to comprehend that beautiful string of words? I shamelessly will admit that I haven't actually given much thought to this particular message.

I suppose there is a first for everything, so here goes. God is love. Not God is nice, or God is friendly, or God is caring. Our mighty God is pure, unconditional love. And the amazing thing about that mind-blowing statement is that He reveals Himself to us every single day.

Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 21, 2006) Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 1 Jn 4:7-10 Jn 15:9-17

I have learned so many excellent things since joining the St. Paul's family at Madison in 2004, one being the fact that God is unfathomable. Being human, we tend to put human limits on things, to personify concepts, and to create analogies for anything difficult to grasp.

It is so comforting to remember that we do not have to understand Him, that His forgiveness, love, power, and joy cannot be measured in any human form.

It seems like that should be an easy concept to grasp, but take a moment to wrap your brain around it; we try to say that He loves us unconditionally, but really He loves us past unconditional to a point we will never comprehend in this life.

The readings today manifest His simple message of love. Knowing and accepting that He is love makes the attempt to live in His image much less complicated. This year, I have been trying to focus on simple things and one of my keywords is love.

"Love one another." There He is, did you notice? A perfect example of the Father revealing Himself - those three concluding words to hit home. I find it incomprehensible how many things He does and has done for us already through love.

Another thing I learned from a friend appears in today's Gospel - joy. He tells us to keep His commandments so that "your joy may be complete."

God the Father, the immeasurable, indescribable creator not of the world, but of the universe, wants nothing more than to be close to us, His creation, that we might be joyful. My friend taught me to be joyful through Jesus, Others, and then Yourself.

I love God. I love seeing Him in my life and knowing that He remains with me always. He's with me now, giving me the happiness that comes from His word and the peace from making connections in His message. He wants us to love in order to feel true joy.

	Reflection questions • What does the statement "God is love" mean to me? • How has God shown Himself to me today? What have I done about it? • Did I pass on that love to any of His children?

How simple. We continually question the world and the meaning of life, yet the answer is as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. To love.

I can only hope that this exceptional message of true love has touched all of you, my brothers and sisters, as it has me.

Kaiti Anderson, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majors in International Studies and French. She is a member of the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and co-directs St. Paul University Catholic Center's production of Jesus Christ, Superstar.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

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