The Gift of His Love

God lives and works today. In different ways throughout the Bible, we read that He is a joyous God, who wants us to be joyous too. For example, the Psalms tell us to make a joyful noise to the Lord and to serve Him with gladness.

But perhaps your life is lacking joy. Certain people at home or at work make life difficult for you and destroy your happiness. This is precisely the moment when God can intervene and give you His love and joy.

Listen to the following meditation by Basilea Schlink called, The Gift of His Love. Jesus' joy is the name Mother Basilea gave our guest house and retreat center. It was her concern that there Jesus would be proclaimed as the one who makes people happy.

She yearned that people who came for retreats would be inspired to follow Jesus after having experienced the tremendous joy of His redemptive power. Jesus' way of life is indicated in the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the Beatitudes. Jesus has redeemed us so that we can follow this road.

Who makes us happy? Jesus, that's you. Therefore, my heart rejoices in you. Jesus, O joy, He The Sermon on the Mount.

Isn't it based on the law of love? Love that cannot fail to make us happy? This love is the fulfillment of the commandments. It's the love that is outpoured through the Holy Spirit. It's the love that Jesus represents.

On the cross, Jesus died to obtain this love for us. He has redeemed us to this love. Love makes a person happy.

It's not self-seeking. It can bear, endure everything. It doesn't retaliate with abuse, but rather blesses those who persecute and harm it.

Love is the supreme power, a force mightier than the hatred, that ruins the lives of nations and people. Yes, Jesus calls us to take the Sermon on the Mount literally, applying it to our lives. At first, this way of life seems so hard because it involves a forsaking, a dying to self.

It's true that our ego suffers drastically when we have to do good, or be merciful, or a peacemaker to those whom we would rather avoid, to those who have wounded us or made life difficult for us. In all truth, this path, as described in the Sermon on the Mount, is a narrow way, leading through a narrow gate. And yet, this way leads to joy.

I've experienced it myself. For years, I didn't take the commandments of Jesus seriously, such as losing my life, loving my enemies, and many other commandments. My life was more or less stigmatized by spiritual death.

But since I began to take the commandments of God seriously, above all, the commandment to love, I was driven to the arms of Jesus. Yes, each failure to live up to them drove me to Jesus. I became happy in Him.

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God bless you.