The Healing Journey

June 21, 2024

“The greatest challenge of our Christian faith is the acceptance of the infinite love that God has for each of us.”
— Sr. Elissa Rinere CP

Throughout history, many mystics have been given a glimpse of the divinity of Jesus … and also his humanity. Their understanding of him is always the same: He is a constant friend, who never gets tired of hearing our problems, who welcomes every moment that we turn to him, who has a compassionate, sympathetic and unchanging love for each of us that will weather our every crisis, our grief, our anger, our shortcomings, our emotional outbursts and our setbacks. In short, he’s the perfect friend … and the friend we most need when we’re agonizing over the loss of someone we love.

Regardless of our circumstances and even when we’re angry with God, Jesus will never leave us. He is a patient and sympathetic companion. And never forget this: Although his love is universal, it is also personal, which means it is particular to us. He loves each of us as individuals, with our faults, flaws and all the other baggage that humans carry around.

Too often we have an abstract view of God, which is hardly comforting when we need someone to cry to. It’s important to remember that with Jesus you can be yourself, because he already knows more about you than you do. So never waste time being pretentious or acting like someone you’re not. Imagine him telling you, “I will never leave you. I will always love you and welcome you in my heart. Your answers and your clarity will be found with me.” Because that’s the truth.

Catholic author and speaker Carolyn Berghuis explained it this way: “We hear that God is love, and this is all well and good. However, do we really get what this means? So often our image of God is clouded with images of his ‘wrath’ and ‘anger’….However, through my study of our mystics, my heart has been reassured of God’s love. Our Church mystics see it as theologically impossible for there to be wrath, anger, and unforgiveness in God – God is love and he cannot hold himself back from us – not even our worst sin can cause God to not love us. How reassuring!”

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