When the evangelist John speaks of the “world,” he is not talking about our spinning blue and green planet. For him, the “world” is all that is fallen; it is that stubborn preference in our hearts for what is not life, not love, not God. When Jesus says that he is not from the world, he is not saying that he is some kind of extraterrestrial alien. He is saying that the preference and desires of his heart are only life, love, and God.

When Christ was lifted up, the cross became a sign for the whole world to see. The cross is a sign that God can work through anything, even failure.  It is a sign that says when are our hearts are in God, all will be well. Nothing, no failure of ours, not even death, can separate us from life, from love, from God when we give our hearts to him.

What would it look like to place my heart in Christ’s and desire what Christ desires? What keeps me from accepting my failures and believing that God can work through them as well?

—Cyril Pinchak, S.J. is a first year theology student at Regis College in Toronto. He taught previously at University of Detroit High School & Academy in Detroit, MI.

 

The post Life – Love – God appeared first on Jesuit Prayer.