I shared yesterday, that God loves us with an unimaginable love. We are loved by him freely, and that we are to receive, rest, and abide in his love. That his love just stays with us is not the end result though. As Paul writes in his letter to the Thessalonians from our first reading today, “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…” ( I Thessalonians 3:12).

When we trust in God and receive his love, we will begin to heal, to become aware of those areas in our lives where we need to confess and be forgiven, to begin to get out of our head, experience less mental anguish, and begin to experience his consolations as we develop a more consistent practice of prayer. This process does not happen in a vacuum.

We interact with others: family, friends, colleagues, as well as acquaintances and random encounters in our everyday activities. One of the most powerful ways we grow in experiencing the love of God is sharing his love with others. Love is not a mere sentiment or emotion. The love of God is as St. Thomas Aquinas calls it an act of the will in which we choose to will the good of the other. We seek and genuinely hope for their best.

This may not always be easy. Often people press our buttons, there are misunderstandings, and points of unresolved wounds are triggered in our interactions. In these situations, love results in our willingness to resist reacting and instead returning to the rhythm of breathing, resting, receiving, and abiding in God’s love and then choosing to share the love we have received with another.

This is harder if we attempt to do so on our own strength and will power alone. We need to turn to God to resist turning in upon ourselves and being self-centered and instead invite God into the situation and allow him to love another through us. The gift of God’s love is that it is infinite and will not run out. It remains like a flowing stream as long as we don’t damn up the flow.

We stop the flow of God’s love when we believe the lies the evil spirit or another tells us, hold a grudge, gossip, are unwilling to forgive, unwilling to give someone the benefit of the doubt, wish them ill, seek their harm, or delight in their mishaps. This is not who God is calling us to be. To love is to forgive, to be willing to guide and help, to give others the benefit of the doubt, to respect other’s boundaries, and respect their dignity as human beings.

As we receive, rest, and abide in God’s love and then share as God moves us to do so each day with each encounter, our love grows and God’s love spreads.

Each of us are not perfect. We often fall short. A good practice is to examine our conscience each day to see those ways in which we may have slipped, held back from reaching out to another, allowed some part of us that is in need of healing to affect how we have not treated someone as well as how we could have through any impatience, selfishness, judgment, or prejudice. We need to resist getting down on ourselves and confess to God directly or through the sacrament of Reconciliation. When we humbly do so, the few logs we let build up will gently flow away and we will continue our journey to increase and abound in love for one another and for all!

Photo: Deanery Holy Hour, August 10, 2023 with Viviana, Adm. Assistant for Vocations, Freddy, Fr. Duvan, and Jude!

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, August 31, 2023