MEDITATION OF THE DAY
March 10, 2022
Children of the Heavenly Father
We are ministers of a God who, in spite of our sins, loves us with a love unequaled here below, a God who pursues you with his undying love, who even now as I speak to you remains invisibly at the door of your heart, and uses my words to knock on your door and to say to you, softly: Poor child, give me your heart…
Do you understand how much love it took God to give his creatures, all of them without exception, the commandment to love him? You give alms to a beggar in the street, you pray for an assassin who will atone for his crime. Why? Undoubtedly you love them in some fashion. But do you want to be loved by them; will you solicit their friendship? Not at all, right? You would never even think of it, and if their friendship were offered, you would perhaps push it away. God does not treat us that way, from the greatest souls to the lesser ones, from the noblest souls to the most degraded. He loves all of us and asks us, commands us, to love him….
Some people are surprised that God gave us the commandment to pray. As for me, I am stunned at their surprised. Do these people not know what it is to love? No oubt God is our master and Lord. By that title alone he has the right to require homage from us. But if God asks us to pray it is not so much because he is our master; it is also, and especially, because he loves us. If you have had children or if you have had friends, you much easily understand the precept of prayer. What greater happiness when we love than to devote oneself to a friend? Now, do you know the supreme joy of friendship? It is to realize that our friend has complete confidence in us, unlimited, to open his heart fully to us, to entrust all his joys for us to take part in them, all his sorrows for our consolation, all his projects, all his hopes to request our assistance and advice. Those who love us with genuine friendship will understand me and will attest to the truth of what I say. God is the most gentle and the most devoted of friends. Do you understand now why God commands us to pray? It is not that he has need of us, to be sure; it is that He love s us passionately.
Blessed Jean-Joseph Lataste
Blessed Jean-Joseph Lataste (+1869) was a French Dominican priest who, after preaching a retreat to women in prison, founded the Dominican Sister of Bethany.
