Caritas.

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. – 1 John 4.12

“Who doesn’t want to be loved unconditionally?” asked our enlightened professor of systematic theology in the dimly lit back room of the tavern that we met at weekly for Beer and Theology. B&T’s format was simple. We went around the room introducing ourselves by name, year in school (alumni status, pastorate, etc.), and offered our deepest theological and biblical questioning of the week. It was a great way to decompress, have a beer (Millstream, brewed in the Amana Colonies, was the unofficial beer of choice) or root beer for the teetotalers among us, and enjoy a conversation. I can’t say that we ever really received an answer to the group-decided ponderings, we loved discussing it, and may have on occasion, learned something. Most of the time, it just created more questions. But that is theology, the Bible, life, and even God. When you think you have it all figured out, something comes along to remind you, perhaps even humble you, that there is always something more to learn. God is a mystery.

The Letter of St. John gives us a glimpse into one of the certain, knowable attributes of God, God is love. Where there is love, there is God. And where there is God, there is Jesus and the Holy Spirit, a perfect unity, the blessed Trinity. St. Augustine writes that “God is invisible, and must be looked at not with the eye, but with the heart.” When we explore the mysteries of God this is our starting point. Everything that we are as the church, as citizens, as children of God begins with the heart where divine love abides. Divine love is sacrificial. Love that as St. Paul reminds us often “is patient and kind, not envious, boastful, or arrogant…it bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (cf. 1 Corinthians 13)

As human beings, prone to wandering, our love is imperfect, but we have been given Jesus, whose perfect love we cling to by faith. That perfect love, by faith, casts out fear, especially the fear of being unloved. In Jesus, God’s love is presented in human likeness. And in the incarnation of God’s beloved Son, who offered his life for the sake of the whole world, you are perfectly made and unconditionally loved. God loved you first. Not as you should be, but as you are. Yet, God’s love doesn’t leave you there but raises you up in that love to abundant life. This love abides in you. And in this everlasting, sacrificial, divine love, we see God. Who doesn’t want to be loved unconditionally?