Are You Rejecting God’s Love Without Realizing It? (Ken & Fr. Cristino)

In this Advent Reflection, we delve into the profound words of St. Alphonsus and their relevance for Advent 2023. Together with Father Cristino, we explore the mystery of God’s extravagant love and sacrifice, as well as the heartbreaking reality of how humanity often fails to respond to it.
St. Alphonsus challenges us to reflect deeply on the ways Christ endured suffering—from the stable to the cross—and how His immense love invites us to respond with our hearts fully. Could we unknowingly be rejecting this divine love?

Transcript

Father Cristino welcome back thank you appreciate that you uh participated in our Advent series and so we're going to go again into St Alphonsus a quote from him and I'll get your reaction sure St Alphonsus says it is a Marvel says the saint to see a god endure such suffering shedding tears in a stable poor in a workshop languishing on a cross in short Afflicted and tormented the whole of his life for the love of men and then to see these men who not only do not burn with love towards such a loving God but even have the boldness to despise his love and grace your first thought ouch that's that says a lot in very poetic terms but I think the real Point that he's getting at at the end there is is to say after giving some examples of all of the different ways that our Lord so so peacefully and voluntarily bore suffering all throughout his life from beginning in uh that stable where he cried as a baby would cry the the tears that would accompany him throughout his whole life up until the cross itself the real tragedy is that despite showing us that love that there have been innumerable people throughout history who have not only not been moved by that love but turned around and contradict it or or reject it uh and so that is what really strikes me out of out of of what he's saying there is that uh it's one thing for it to be a tragedy that God should have come to suffer for us and with us but then to compound that suffering that we would reject his love because of our sin that we would prefer the things in this world to that which he calls us to is slap in the face to him right it's just to it's just simply to add to the suffering he's already endured and so that I think is such a such a sad reality uh but one which hopefully by coming to grips with that and realizing the way in which our sin is not simply an offense against God but actually uh hurts him that it is a rejection of how he's already tried to love us that can help Inspire us to try and put our sin behind us in order that we can love him better there was a quote prior to this one in his daily sermons today and uh St Alphonsus makes the point that God could have saved us another way but he didn't he chose this way MH what does that say to us or communicate to us that he could have but he chose this way is there something that we can learn from that I think it's the mystery of the depths of his love uh we we have the tendency to to take whatever shortcut we can to find the simplest and easy easiest way forward I had a professor in the Seminary used to say work smart not hard uh and I value that in the sense of why we should be more efficient and do as much work as we can uh in a way that takes as little excess effort from us as possible uh but yet we don't want to let that turn into uh the lowest common denominator mentality where we do the bare minimum right when I do marriage prep with couples I always say how would you feel if one of you asked the other what is the minimum amount of love you require for me in order not to leave me wouldn't even just being asked that question hurt you wouldn't it alarm you to wonder whether or not I could actually be married to this person if their objective is only to love me the minimum amount I require Love by its nature should want to give more and so St Alphonsus I think is saying despite the fact that God could have saved us by some other simple and humble means uh that would not have to have involved the suffering of the Cross and all of the other suffering that his human life endured he still chose that because he wanted to give the maximum amount he wanted to give all of what he knew he could and not the bare minimum of what he had to and that I think should set a pattern for us to also want to try and follow how can I Love You Lord the most effectively how can I give give you as much as possible as as opposed to asking what's the bare minimum that I need to do to get into heaven and if we start from that perspective we're already at a very dangerous starting point and something that is beneath what we are capable of because love is capable of of the infinite yeah I I earlier it's I can't remember where it's not in this day but uh he makes the point then one that one drop of blood might have been could have been enough to save us all but what he might have done with a drop he does with a stream MH and that just really struck me that our God does not take the shortcut to save us he he's not with the lack of a better theological word cheap right right and and and other theologians even a Protestant Theologian uh C boner has talked about uh cheap Grace uh and how we are drawn to something which seems to cost us as little as possible but that God doesn't deal in in cheap things God uh is elaborate God uh wants to shower us with more than we deserve uh and more than we need because his love is extravagant and so there is a desire for him to put out as much of himself as he can I'm I I I'm not a big Shakespearean scholar by any stretch but I've always been so taken by the beautiful line in Romeo and Juliet when Juliet asks Romeo how how did you get in here because he scaled the wall to get into her garden Courtyard and he describes how no no wall and no threat of Archer was going to keep me from getting out to you because what love can do that dares love attempt and what a beautiful way of saying if love can do it then love will try to do it if love sees a path forward it's going to try and pursue that path not take whatever seems to be the fastest simplest and easiest way forward in the quote of this that we read uh St s fanis mentions that there is some that might despise his love and when we read that someone might be starting to worry Have I despised his love and they get fearful and they're sitting there right now even as we talk and they're fearful because oh am I one of those who has despised his love what would you say to that response no one who asks themselves that question is loving him as little as possible if we even ask that question it's because we already want to love him better and because we are capable of infinite we must not be discouraged that we have not yet perfected our love because we can't and instead that should excite us that should Inspire us to say I can always love him more and I can always love him better it's never exhausted I've never reached the end of it I've never gotten to its depths uh which is not a source of discouragement it doesn't mean that I have failed it means that for as long as I live I have greater time and opportunity to give more uh to love better and so we must not allow ourselves to become uh destroyed by the discouragement that comes from the devil who's always trying to point out to us you haven't loved God as much as you could the answer to that is to say with a smile I know and that's why I want to still try to love him more and try to love him better thank you thanks