Holy Spirit, help me deepen my love for Christ Jesus...

 
John 21:1-19

“Do you love me ?” Jesus is constantly asking us.  “Do you love me?”  -more than the comforts of First World status quo? Only if I truly love Jesus more than all these things, will I be able to ‘feed his lambs’ with the attention, connection and provision they need.  “Do you love me?” –more than being a victim of all the injustices and hurts that have come along? Only if I love Jesus more than ‘being right!’and ‘sweet revenge’, will I be able to ‘feed his lambs’ with the sweet fruit of (divine) mercy.  “Do you love (have deep personal attachment to) me?” –more than life on earth itself? Only if I love Jesus more than my own idea of my life and so will follow him even to my own seeming demise, will I be able to ‘feed his sheep’, that is, minister to other followers of Jesus.  Do I love Jesus with *‘reasoning, intentional, spiritual, devotion, as one loves the Father’?  Do I love Jesus with *‘the same deep, instinctive, personal attachment with which I love a friend’? Holy Spirit deepen my love for Christ Jesus.
 
*the expansion of the two Greek words for ‘love’ used in this passage from the Amplified Bible, 1958
 
You have turned my mourning in to dancing. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. .  (Psalm 30:11)
 
It is not a gift or a reward God wants to give us. It is a communion. An encounter. A life.
Jean Vanier in A Cry is Heard. 2018
 
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Soli ad gloriam Dei