Instructions For Lent

“Do You Love Me”
“Before Jesus commissioned Peter to be a shepherd he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do? He asked him again, “Do you love me? And a third time he asked, “Do you love me?” This question is central to Christian ministry, it allows us to be and at the same time irrelevant and truly self-confident. If we look at Jesus Christ the world did not pay attention to him. The world falsely accused him, crucified him and killed him.  His message of LOVE was rejected by the world, for the world is in search of power, control, oppression, racial segregation, and it wants to promote divisions and hate. But this same Christ appears to his friends in his glorified body and asks his friends, “Do you love me?” Christ came to a hate filled world to proclaim the unconditional love of God to all. What is important for those doing ministry, is this, the question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus Christ?  In this world of enormous despair men and women need to know that JESUS loves them unconditional regardless.  God’s heart is a forgiving heart, no keeping of grudges, no suspicion, no vindictiveness, no resentment, and not a tinge of hatred. It is a heart that wants to only to give love and receive love in response.  It is a heart that suffers immensely because it sees the magnitude of human pain and the great resistance to trusting the heart of God who wants to offer consolation and hope.
The Christian leader of the future is the one who truly knows the heart of God and as it has become flesh, a heart of flesh, in Jesus Christ. Knowing God’s heart means consistently, radically and very concretely to announce and reveal that God is love and only love, and that every time fear, isolation, or despair begin to invade the human soul this is not something that comes from God.  For God loves without limits. The unconditional love of God.  We did not love God first, it was God that first loved us before we even knew.  When we know that we are the beloved of God, the desire to be relevant and successful will gradually disappear, and our only desire will be to say with our whole being to our brothers and sisters of the human race, “You are loved.”
 
Henri Nouwen