God Loves the World

WHATEVER our beliefs, we can all agree that the world is not as it should be. But too often we and our Churches tend to see the world only as a mess, caught up in mindless trivialization, self-indulgent, short-sighted. We see it as having no values that demand self-sacrifice, of worshipping fame, of being addicted to material goods, and of being anti-Church. Indeed, it is not uncommon in our Churches to see the world as our enemy.
But Jesus loved the world! The Gospels describe Jesus’ reaction towards the world that rejected him. As Jesus Wept over Jerusalem, saying: “If you had only recognized the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” Jesus sees what happens when people try to live without God, the mess, the pain, the heartbreak, and his heartache. If only you could see what you’re doing! Luke 19.41f
Looking at a world that can often break down because of its self-centredness, Jesus responds with understanding, not judgment; with heartache, not rubbing salt in the wounds; and with tears of compassion. Loving parents and friends understand exactly what Jesus was feeling at the moment when he wept over Jerusalem.
What frustrated parent hasn’t looked at a son or daughter caught up in wrong choices and self-destructive behaviour and wept inside as the words spontaneously formed: If only you could
see what you’re doing! If only I could do
something to spare you the damage you’re doing to your life by this blindness! If only you could recognize the things that make for peace! But you can’t, and it breaks my heart!
Our Christian faith asks us to have a genuine love for the world. ‘For God so loved the world he gave his only Son.’ John 3.16 ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ John 15.12 The world isn’t our enemy. It’s our wayward child and our loved friend who is breaking our heart. That can be hard to see and accept when in fact the world is often belligerent and arrogant in its attitude towards us, when it’s angry with us, when it wrongly judges us, and when it scapegoats us.
But that’s exactly what suffering children often do to their parents and friends when they make bad choices and suffer the consequences. They impute and scapegoat. This can feel most unfair to us, but Jesus’ attitude towards those who rejected and crucified him invites us to empathise.
Moreover a genuine empathy for the world isn’t just predicated on mature sympathy. Mature sympathy is itself predicated on better seeing the world for what it is. The 17 year-old adolescent standing belligerent and angry before her parents isn’t a bad person, she’s just not yet fully grown up.
That’s true too for our world: It’s not a bad place; it’s just far from being a finished and mature one. Jesus came ‘that we might have life to the full.’ John 10.10 We find something of this fullness when we allow ourselves to be guided by the light of Christ rather than our passing moods 6/1/12
Peter Knott SJ