1John 4:17

Hey Zeteo Community!

After a little (okay long) break from the blog, I am back! Benedict is already two months old, and has been to two Zeteos already. Where does the time go?

Hope to see many of you at the Zeteo tonight, which will be the last one of the summer. Finishing off with a bang for the year with Father Roger Rouleau speaking on Everyday Discernment - a topic I am personally very excited for.

Week 1: 1 John 4:17

I started praying this morning, and then Jerome came into our room with no diaper on and pooped on the floor right by the bed. (Yep, the glamorous life of a mother.) Needless to say, I dealt with that first and did not end up finishing my prayer until twelve hours later.

At the last Zeteo event, Deacon Ken and Marlane spoke about how we need to embrace our circumstances, which can sometimes be compared to hugging a cactus. This morning, my cactus to hug was a floor-poop instead of starting the day with prayer like I had planned. In that moment, I had to admit to God that I would not be able to finish praying, but if He gave me grace in dealing with an un-graceful situation I could come to Him in a different way. If we are able to own up to the truth of who we are and what we have to contend with, we can experience so much growth in our relationship with Christ.

The topic of the last event was the Real Person of Jesus. Deacon Ken and Marlane Noster spoke about how we can come to know Jesus personally, the beginning of this journey being that we come to accept who we truly are. It is only then we can come to our relationship with Christ in openness and honesty.

Jesus chooses to present Himself to us in different ways, and we need to learn how to accept Him for who He truly is - just as He accepts us for who we truly are. As the Nosters said, Jesus is always both justice and mercy, though we tend to focus more on justice as it puts emphasis on our merit, or what we feel we deserve.

However, we need to reverse this idea that we can earn anything, for of that we're the case, we would be out of luck entirely. The truth is, we cannot and we do not need to earn goodness in our lives. Jesus does not love us because of anything we do, His love is not conditional as human love tends to be. He is the Father of Mercy, and we are far more valuable to Him than anything we could ever do to deserve this value. It is through His mercy alone that we receive and experience goodness, for we are already good enough for everything He wants to give us.

A question that came to my mind, and I'm sure it was there for many of you as well, is that, if we can do nothing to earn mercy, why do we bother to pray, or do good in our lives? If we are not trying to earn anything, what is the point? It seemed to me as if we were still going about it all wrong.

The answer came to me in a rather roundabout way. Tharin and I are in the midst of moving and selling our house. It is stressful because we really need to sell, and as a result, I was grappling with all kinds of fears. Will we sell in time? Will we lose the chance to buy the house I love because it is taking too long to sell this house? And on and on.

Then out of nowhere came the Bible verse, "there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out all fear." 1 John 4:17. Since that day, I have been pondering those words, what it means to have perfect love, in my heart. Perfect love of Christ drives out all fear because if we have perfect love of Christ we are in unity with Him and with His will - therefore having no fear of anything the world, or sin, can try to throw at us. If we have perfect love of Christ we do not fear punishment, and so we can boldly hope for heaven.

Now, perfect love of Christ is not something we can attain on our own. No, like any true courtship, it takes spending time in communication with the other person, listening to and getting to know them, spending time together, and doing things that make them happy.

And so we must pray, fast, take part in the Sacraments, and lead moral lives in all aspects, for it is only then that we can learn to truly love Christ. When we love Christ and enter into unity with Him, we are so much more capable of receiving the goodness and blessings He had reserved for us. We do not earn His love, but we can learn to be more receptive to it.