Readings: Isaiah 55:1-3; Psalm 145; Romans 8:35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21.
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.
Blessed be the name of the Lord for His goodness and kindness to us.
God has a message for us today, a message that is very powerful, healing, reassuring and full of hope.
St Paul says in the second reading, “nothing can come between us and the love of Christ.”
This powerful statement has two layers of interpretation/application.
I. Nothing can make God to stop loving us.
Many people believe that God can no longer love them, they have exceeded the limit of “forgivable” sins, and some think their suffering is evidence that God does not love them anymore.
Today, we are reminded that God’s love for us is constant, unconditional and everlasting – CUE (Jeremiah 31:3, Lamentations 3:22-33), our sins cannot drain it and our suffering does not indicate an end of it.
God will never stop loving us, no matter what we have done or what we are doing or what we will do in the future. Let us ‘mute’ the voice of the accuser telling us that the love of God for us is already spent, God may detest our sins but He does not detest us.
II. Nothing should take away our love for God.
The love that many people have for God has grown cold while many have lost their love for God because of love for other things- love of pleasure, love of sin, inordinate love of God’s creature, earthly pursuit and ambition, mundane distraction, challenges and stresses of life (Matthew 24:12, Rev 2:4).
The Lord is saying to us today, we should not let anything diminish or erode our love for Him.
Why?
According to the first reading and the Gospel, He is the one who truly cares for us more than anyone else, He knows us more than anyone else, He loves us more than anyone else, no one can love us more than He does, He doesn’t send us away when we are in need, He is the one who can really and fully satisfy the needs of our souls, all that we need are with Him, He is the only one who can guarantee us a glorious eternity.
Lord Jesus, may nothing ever compete with your love in our hearts, may we love completely, faithfully and forever, You who love us with an everlasting, faithful and steadfast love, Amen.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Gukena Okami on August 2, 2020