“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I am constant in my affection for you.”
The first reading from Jeremiah (31:1-7) contains these beautiful words for Israel and for all of us: that God loves us with an everlasting love. I'm sure a mere meditation on these words can fill our hearts and our days with great joy. This is good news for us, and for all. This is no figure of speech, or mere human imagination. This is revelation, this is the great news of God's unconditional and unfailing love for us. We may have hard time in believing this, but when we even start to get the import and meaning of this statement, I think the world around us will change, our inner lives and our relationships will change forever. God loves us with an enless love; His affection is constant, non-stop. What more do we want? Isn't this the good news that we want to hear, and we want to proclaim? God is more intimate to you than you are to yourself. Nothing human can stop the flow of divine love; we cannot undo the eternal pattern of God's love even by our worst sin. Love consists in this—not limiting God by our human equations of love, but allowing God's infinite love to utterly redefine our own. (Paraphrase of 1 John 4:10.)
That God's love doesn't have boundaries, that he loves everyone deeply, that God loves every person whatever culture or religion they belong to is shown in the gospel reading of today (Matthew 15:21-28). Though initially the dialogue between the woman and Jesus is difficult, even to the extent of a seeming arrogance and bigotry from the part of Jesus who is a Jew himself (who also seems very harsh), only the end of the dialogue brings out the true meaning of the interaction. He praises her, “Woman, you have great faith!” Even though the Canaanites are historical enemies of the Jews, Jesus sees in the woman a cause to celebrate God’s goodness and healing grace. She is simply another human being. Being human, you deserve to be loved. Being human, you are already loved deeply, in an endless and boundless way.
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