This Marvelous Exchange

     “We might say the whole mystery of our redemption in Christ, by His incarnation, His death and his resurrection, consists of this marvelous exchange: in the heart of Christ, God has loved us humanly, so as to render our human hearts capable of loving divinely. God became man so that man might become God – might love as only God is capable of loving, with the purity, intensity, power, tenderness, and inexhaustible patience that belong to divine love. It is an extraordinary source of hope and great consolation to know that, by virtue of God’s grace working in us (if we remain open to it by persevering in faith, prayer, and the sacraments), the Holy Spirit will transform and expand our hearts to the point of one day making them capable of loving as God does.”                                          Fr. Jacques Phillipe



     Loving divinely, as God does, is impossible for us to do by our own power. Our love is often shallow, self-centered, calculated, measured and faulty. We want to give love when we “feel” like it, and hold it back when we judge the effort is not worth the gain we will receive in return. We want to love those we enjoy and “click” with, and shutter when we are with persons with whom loving can be difficult. Even when we are at our best, we can only maintain loving for a short amount of time, without imploring this grace from God.


     Father Jacques assures us that God has remedied our inability to love, by offering us His own heart, through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. He is holding out His heart, so it may be received by us. After having received His heart, we must die to all selfishness, to even attempt to love as God loves.

     When we are weary and tired and don’t feel like talking; when we see someone with whom we struggle and don’t want to acknowledge them; when our family and friends seem demanding; when we are just plain fed up with being the one called to change: REJOICE! These are opportunities God is placing before us to practice loving as He does.

     Trying to live this virtue will not be easy. It will take a lot of practice before we are able to love—even partially -- with the purity, intensity, power, tenderness, and inexhaustible patience with which God loves us. But each time we try, we will do a little better than before, as we open ourselves to God and His good graces.

     When we fail, and we will, be patient with yourself, and run to Papa’s arms to ask for His forgiveness and His grace. Stay there, close to His heart, until life’s hurts and disappointments are healed by His love.

     May we beseech Sasha, the Holy Spirit, to pour down in abundance, the graces that are needed to transform and expand our puny hearts.  We will stand in consolation and hope, that with the help of God’s graces, we may one day, love divinely and accept with deep gratitude, this marvelous exchange of His heart.