The exponential character of love

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT’S what we are reminded of in that gospel episode where Christ said: “In what measure you shall mete, it shall be measured to you again, and more shall be given to you. For he that has, to him shall be given; and he that has not, that also which he has shall be taken away from him.” (Mk 4,24-25)

That, in a nutshell, is the very nature of love, if it’s true love, one that is a vital participation and reflection of the very essence of God which is also meant to be our own essence, since we are God’s image and likeness.

It’s a love that never says enough in spite of our obvious limitations and weaknesses. When we reach those limits, like Christ we would just commend ourselves to God’s own ways that go beyond our natural powers, making the impossible possible. As God’s image and likeness, the supernatural powers of God are also shared with us.

This duty of loving knows no bounds. As St. Francis de Sales said, “The measure of love is to love without measure.” And we might ask, is this possible, is this doable? The answer, of course, is yes. In the first place, there is in us a spiritual capacity that would lead us to the world of the spiritual and supernatural, the world of the infinite.

And that is possible in us because of our spiritual faculty which is made actual due to God giving us his grace, that free gift that would enable us to actually enter into the very life of God and to share his power. We are reassured that this grace is given to us in abundance. Even if sin abounds, God’s grace will still abound even more, St. Paul tells us.

With his grace, we can manage to have a supernatural life with God, the kind of life meant for us since we are God’s image and likeness, children of his. Our very human nature is meant to have a supernatural life in God. It is not meant to a merely natural human life, much less, an animal life ruled mainly by instincts and emotions alone.

With his grace, what is impossible for us to achieve by relying only on our natural powers is made possible, for nothing is impossible with God. (cfr Lk 1,37) St. Paul verified that when he said: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,13) Yes, we can do all things with Christ in spite of our limitations.

We have to remember that we are meant for the infinite, for the spiritual and the supernatural. That’s a goal that we can never fully reach in our life here on earth. But we are meant to keep on trying.

What can keep us going in this regard is certainly not our own effort alone, much less our desire and ambition for fame, power or wealth. It’s not pride or some form of obsessions. These have a short prescription period. A ceiling is always set above them. In time, we will realize that everything we have done was just “vanity of vanities.”

It is God’s grace that does the trick. It’s when we correspond sincerely to God’s love for us that we get a self-perpetuating energy to do our best in any given moment. That’s when we can manage to do the impossible.

It’s a correspondence that definitely requires a lot of humility because we all have the inclination to be proud of our accomplishments that would kill any desire to do better. It’s also a correspondence that is always respectful of our human condition, given our strengths and weaknesses, our assets and limitations.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com