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Children love to get presents. You can see their excitement grow as Christmas or a birthday approaches.
They clap, they giggle, they run around the room, smiling broadly. They just can’t wait to open their presents. In fact, you would be surprised, and even concerned, if you saw a child looking at presents and not wanting to open them.
In our first article, we looked at that popular verse from John’s Gospel: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). If we take a closer look at this passage, we see that there are two parts to this verse. The first part has to do with God’s gift to the world. He gave his only Son to save us from sin. But like all other gifts, this one too has to be accepted and opened, and that’s the second part of this verse. John tells us that God gave his Son so that we could believe in him and thus receive the gift of everlasting life.
So let’s take a look at this gift of divine love. Let’s look at the fact that God is constantly reaching out to us, seeking to open our eyes and reveal himself to us so that we might believe in him and receive the gifts that he wants to give us.
A God of Faithful Love. When we recall the dominant themes of Scripture, we see that a number of them have to do with what we have to do. We are called to obey God’s commands, to pray, to repent, to love one another, and to place no idols before the Lord. If we were to look only at these commands—and look at them all at once—we might end up feeling demoralized and overwhelmed. Is this all that Christianity is? A list of do’s and don’ts? Is it just a set of rules that we’re expected to keep? Of course not. Before we begin worrying about a single command or expectation, we need to be clear that the foundation of our life with God is a relationship of love, not a relationship of tasks. And this relationship of love comes first and foremost from God, not from us. As John tells us, we love because God first loves us (1 John 4:19).
In the Hebrew Bible, God revealed his love in many different ways. But the most powerful, and the most common, way God showed his love was in his faithfulness to the Israelites. No matter what crisis or challenge the people were facing, God was always there to help them and to rescue them. He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. He gave them the courage and inspiration to march all the way to the Promised Land.
When the people settled in Canaan, he guided them through the judges. He gave them kings to rule over them and protect them. When those kings led the people into sin and idolatry, he reached out through the prophets, warning them against the consequences of unfaithfulness. Ultimately, when the people did reap those tragic consequences and were sent into exile, God still reached out. He forgave them, healed them, and brought them back home.
Love Comes to the Rescue. In one way or another, each of these acts of God points beyond itself to his greatest act of rescuing his people. Scripture tells us that “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Just as he reached out to the Israelites, God reached out to all of us. He sent his only Son to rescue us from our sin and bring us safely into his kingdom.
This rescue mission is greater than all of the rescues that God had previously performed. It is bigger than the exodus. It’s bigger than the conquest of Canaan. It’s bigger than the return from exile. It’s bigger than everything, because the One rescuing us is so much greater than Moses or Joshua, and because the enemy that he vanquished was so much more menacing. Jesus is God. He is of the same substance as the Father. He left his heavenly throne to save us from the power of sin, to rescue us from Satan, and to defeat death itself. Could there possibly be any greater demonstration of love?
It may be impossible to fathom, but God loves each one of us with his whole heart. He is completely committed to us. Scripture doesn’t promise that we will feel God’s love all the time. Neither does it say that God’s love will spare us from all suffering, failure, or sickness. But it does say that nothing can separate us from this love (Romans 8:39). It does say that this love has made us into children of God, no matter what immediate difficulties or challenges we may be facing (1 John 3:1).
Three Demonstrations of Love. What do these three stories have in common? The first is the story of how Mary Magdalene met Jesus on Easter Sunday (John 20:15-18). The second is the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-33). And the third is the story of the miraculous catch of fish after Jesus had risen from the dead (John 21:1-7). One easy answer is that all three of these stories take place after Easter. Another easy answer is that all the characters were disciples of Jesus.
Upon closer examination, we can see yet another answer: Each of these stories is about Jesus revealing himself to people so that they can love him and follow him more closely. At the beginning of each story, Jesus appears, but he is not recognized by the disciples. Mary Magdalene mistakenly thinks he is a gardener. The Emmaus disciples think Jesus is a visitor in Jerusalem. And Peter and the apostles think Jesus was just an ordinary man standing on the shoreline.
In each story, it was Jesus who opened the disciples’ eyes to see who he really was. He called Mary Magdalene by name. He explained Scripture and broke bread for the Emmaus disciples. And it took a miraculous haul of fish for the apostles in the boat to realize that it was Jesus standing on the shore. In each of these stories, the people went from blindness to vision not because they had figured out it was Jesus and not because someone else gave him away. Rather, it was only because Jesus opened their eyes. He took the initiative. He wanted them to find him.
Eyes Opened to Love. Just as he did for these first disciples, Jesus wants to open our eyes so that we can see him and receive his love for us. Mary Magdalene’s story tells us that Jesus cannot contain himself. Like Joseph, who was sold into slavery a thousand years earlier, and who couldn’t wait to be reunited with his brothers, Jesus could no longer hide himself from Mary (Genesis 45:1). He couldn’t contain his love for her, and he cannot contain his love for us.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus show us that Jesus wants to reveal himself to us at Mass, during the breaking of the bread. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we have a chance to see Jesus in a new and life-giving way. When the host is blessed and lifted up, blessings flow from heaven—but we have to be open to receiving them. We have to open the gift.
Finally, when Jesus revealed himself to the apostles after the miraculous catch of fish, he invited them to have breakfast with him. We cannot read this story without coming back to the idea of a meal that Jesus has prepared specially for us. Like the Emmaus story, this one too tells us about Jesus showing himself to his people as he blesses and breaks bread with them. It reinforces our trust that Jesus wants us to come and eat with him—to be filled with his heavenly food.
A Response to Love. There is one more thing that these three stories have in common. In each of them, the same thing happened after Jesus revealed himself: People gave away what they had received. Mary immediately went and told the apostles, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18). The Emmaus disciples hurried back to the apostles in Jerusalem and “recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:35). On the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus called Peter: “Feed my sheep,” and Peter followed him (John 21:17,20). Clearly, one of the surest signs that we have experienced the magnificence of God’s love is our desire to go out and tell other people about Jesus.
In all three of these stories, we see Jesus doing the same thing that he and his Father have done since the beginning of time. From the moment our first parents drew their first breath, God has shown nothing but love for his people. Just as he was eager to show himself to Mary Magdalene and the Emmaus disciples, he wants to be with us—and to be with us forever. He is so looking forward to the day when he comes back to take us to heaven with him. In the meantime, he wants to show himself to us every day as we turn to him in prayer and worship. So today and every day, let’s take this magnificent gift of his love, open it, and treasure it with all our heart. It’s the greatest gift we will ever receive.
