Well, it's been a pretty slow day here at Brute.  We had Mass (as usual) at 9:30, which I served for, a cleaning session afterwords, and then lunch, which was prepared by one of the guy's family (thank! - it was Delicious!).  If you haven't picked up, we always look forward to times when families come in and make us a meal - it's always 10x better than what we normally eat, and there's the added bonus of leftovers (I have never looked forward to leftovers until I came here...).  After lunch until like 5 I didn't do much at which point I went out with a group of guys to longhorn steakhouse.  I could probably count on 1 finger how many times I've had a steak at a restaurant, so it was pretty tasty.  Anyway, during that "empty" period between 1 and 5 I prayed midday prayer, and that is what this short post will dive into:

 

During lent, almost everyday it seems that the antiphon for midday prayer is: "As I live, says the Lord, I do not wish the sinner to die but to turn back to me and live."  Since it keeps re-appearing I thought that it just might be important... (it is).  John 3:16 - "For God so loved the wold, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."  Folks, God loved you and me so much that he was willing to die for us.  God created us in love, to love, and for love, yet when we sin and don't direct that love back to God, when we are selfish with something that God gave us freely, he still love us.  God loves us when we don't love Him.  When Jesus is hanging on the cross in unthinkable anguish because we nailed Him there, what does he say? Luke 23:34 - "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."  When we sin, when we're angry, hateful, lazy, selfish, proud, etc. we are choosing to love ourselves more than God and more than others.  God created us "in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)  What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God?  1 John 4:7-10 "love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  

 

I know I'm throwing a lot of scripture around here, but here's the point:  God is love, God created us in love, God created us to love, and when we screwed up and didn't love God back, He loved us more - He died out of love for us.  Guess what, we still screw up, we still don't always love, and guess what, God still loves us.  Now, that doesn't mean we just stop trying to not sin, after all, the point is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and you neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27)  OK, so back to the quote that started off this whole thing: God want us to love Him, he wants us to turn to Him, he wants us to live with Him.  Yeah, we're sinners, that comes with being human, but that doesn't mean we can't turn to God and live.  As Americans we want to be independent, rugged, etc. but we must not become independent of God.  His love is where we came from and that's where we need to get back to.  Don't trust yourself to the point of not trusting God...  Love doesn't take some amount of freedom away from us.  The more we love God the more we are living how we are supposed to - in His image and likeness, and the more we do that the happier we'll be.  Want joy? Want peace? Want to be awesome (ie: live how you were created to)?  Start loving God like He loved you.