We have come to know and to believe in the love
“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” (cf. 1 Jn 4:16). One could say that Saint John in this sentence summarizes the meaning of his entire letter. It is also a kind of summary of the whole Gospel. So little! And yet it is so complicated! Our drama consists mainly in the fact that we are able to admire the statement: God is love, but at the same time this statement remains dead, it does not bring real life to us. We are perfectly trained in abstract thinking, we can admire the beautiful truth in itself as we see it in our mind, but we cannot let it into our heart, transform us, make it our life. St. John made this statement twice, but always in the context of trust in relation to this truth. Only in this context does it make any real sense.
“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.” The truth about God who is love, like the truth about love in general, makes sense as long as we participate in it. We do not know love when love is not in our heart, and thus we cannot say anything about it, it is not for us, because it is not in us. Similarly with God: God is love when He is love for us, when we get to know His love and it is a reality in us, and thus we recognize ourselves in this love and allow ourselves to be shaped by it.
“We have come to know…” It is important now, that we will recall the meaning of the biblical concept of "know." Well, it is personal in nature and refers to the existential bond. Perhaps a bond such as marriage or friendship illustrates it well. We say: getting to know a friend, we must experience a lot of different situations with him. This is also true in marriage, but it shows another principle necessary for true knowing. Well, the spouses live as close to each other as possible. It turns out, however, that mere closeness, and even sharing the fate together, is not enough. It happens that after several years of marriage, the spouses are strangers to each other! Their closeness in life did not give them real knowledge. Perhaps it is best seen when, after a period of deep crisis, reaching as far as the intention to divorce, and then mutual recognition occurs. Everything seems to have just begun. What had happened so far was passing by, and only years after did the opening come, which brought recognition: the husband got to know his wife, and she got to know her husband. And it is precisely this moment that best shows what true knowledge is, as it is spoken of in the Bible. It is closeness, but closeness combined with mutual openness, mutual giving, entrusting and trust. To know another is to truly tell him "You"; "You" as a response to the hunger of my "I". There is no cognition without love! Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. (1 Jn 4: 8) - this is the first time we have heard from St. John this famous phrase about God-love. The same truth applies to another person: Whoever does not love does not know another person, because the other person can only be known through love.
To know God, one must enter into a close relationship with him. Trust becomes the door to true knowledge: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”. (cf. 1 Jn 4:16) In this context, the following lines are clear: “In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. (cf. 1 Jn 4:17-18)
Fear closes and is therefore an obstacle to cognition. The fathers said that fear is one of the greatest obstacles preventing, among other things, the action of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of freedom. It is precisely fear that causes closure to a large extent and prevents real meeting both between people and with God.
“Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” (cf. Mk 6:50). The words of the Lord Jesus, spoken to the disciples on the lake, convey a profound message. “I am” means first: “It is I, not someone else, not a ghost… and therefore do not be afraid. But the words: “I am” also were spoken during the revelation of God to Moses by the Burning Bush as the name of God. At the same time, God said about himself: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (cf. Ex 3:6). “I am” also refers to relationships with persons and points to a living presence, to care, guidance, kindness, education, and above all, to the covenant, the best image of which is marriage. Christ is Emmanuel, "God with us." After these words, there is a calming of the wind and Christ, together with his disciples, sails to the other side. This prosaic, though miraculous event, has great symbolism in it. Perhaps best, it was later expressed by St. Paul in the letter to the Romans: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (cf. Rom 8:31). Our experience shows that knowing God takes place precisely through such prosaic events in which, as it were, in a normal, natural, and therefore imperceptible to us, God appears, comes and brings peace. Then we usually forget that it was, in fact, a miracle. We are reminding in this regard the apostles who did not understand the earlier incident of the multiplication of the bread because their mind was dull (cf. Mark 6:51). Only later, they wonder in their souls - and that allowed them to see something, or at least reflect. It seems that only after the Paschal experience, they come to understand, that everything they had experienced with Jesus had a depth, beyond their comprehension of reality. They lacked eyes to see and ears to hear, because their mind, preoccupied with worldly concerns, was too dull to understand and recognize the presence of He Who Is.
Our life is a mystery into which God himself invites us. We begin to know them only when we accept His invitation and entrust ourselves to His word. By entrusting us, we are born to real life.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george