The Holy Martyr Tryphon.
Pre-feast of the Encounter of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:28-39; Luke 10:19-21
Read Romans 8:28-39
Today we read, brothers and sisters, some of the most inspiring words in the Holy Scriptures about the Love of God. Despite their beauty, and our desperate need to be loved, it is easy for us to fall into an attitude of “understanding” this reading but not really internalizing it or believing it. Knowing that you are loved by God and that there is essentially no way to lose that love is really a life-altering realization.
In the Garden when the serpent tells Eve that God does not want her to become like Him, knowing the difference between good and evil, we see the implicit statement written large: “God doesn’t love you, He’s worried you are going to take away His power.” How often can we fall prey to believing that we have to behave to impress God in order for Him to love us? How often when we hear that God loves us unconditionally are we looking for that secret hidden agenda that He’s got, the strings that you know must be attached? The gospel is that God loved us first and loves us perfectly. Our whole Christian life is a response to what St. Paul says here: we behave in a good and holy manner because God, who loves us, is Good and Holy.
St. Augustine writes:
Often vain curiosity about things which are unknowable … whether in heaven or in hell separates us from God, unless love triumphs. For love calls us to certain spiritual knowledge not by the vanity of external things but by an inner light. “Nor anything else in all creation” can be understood in two ways. First, as a visible creature.… By this interpretation Paul means that no other creature, i.e., no love of bodies, separates us from God. Or surely it may also mean that no other creature … stands between us and God, opposing us and keeping us from God’s embrace. For beyond human minds, which are rational, there is no other creature—only God himself.