LOVE IS A FUNNY THING

Love is a funny thing. Even when someone patently does not deserve it, they may still be loved by a spouse, a mother or a father. Could Hitler’s mother still love him if she was shown the catalogue of evil which he inflicted on the world? We cannot say no to that. It is possible. Love is a funny thing.

Jesus tells us the story of the Prodigal Son, to whom his prodigal father gave half his wealth, the fruit of hard work over half the father’s life. The son was a full-on wastrel, totally absorbed in himself, with no respect for others or care who he hurt - look at how his brother was crippled by bitterness. But the father longed for his return and was eager to fan the faintest flame of sense in the prodigal’s heart.

Jesus told that story of rather far-fetched paternal love, to jump-start his listeners into considering the boundless love of God the Father. He doesn’t play it down. It is a glimpse of the pure and infinite love that he experienced in his dealings with his Father, a love far greater than we can dream or hope for. He knew it was the dynamic of the inner life of the Trinity. It is the dynamic which energises all of creation.

Could God love Hitler? Undoubtedly.

There is a great Christian book, ‘The Shack’ by William Paul Young which was made into a film. The main character, Mack, turned his back for a moment on a camping holiday, and his six-year-old daughter was abducted, probably by a paedophile, and subsequently murdered. He blames himself and will give himself no rest until he has retrieved her body. During one of his search trips to the campsite he meets each member of the Trinity. Two episodes stand out.

Firstly, Jesus gives him a vision of happy children playing in heaven. His little girl is there radiant, and for a brief moment they hug. From then on his all-consuming self-accusation has gone – he knows she is safe and happy.

Could Jesus save Hitler? He has done so, on the cross. In a manner, we are unable to plumb the depths of, he actually took into his heart all the sin of Hitler and raised it up to cover it with the Father’s love. He knew all the vile consequences of Hitler’s hideous actions and actually felt all those worlds of suffering and destruction in his own being, and he still opened it all up to the medicine of our Father.

What did our Father do with all of that? In his infinite and wisdom and love, and with perfect power to cure all sin, he elaborated remedies for every single horrible action. The child, who was orphaned as she survived the murder of her family in the gas chambers, which crippled her emotionally for the rest of his life on earth, was lifted into the Father’s arms, held against his cheek and filled with the tenderest love, which heals all wounds and brings human hearts to wholeness. It happened in eternity not in time, but its effects had worked forward in time to assist the limping orphan in her survival and journey here on earth.

Every single sin has been remedied in the infinite love burning within the Trinity. We are left with the question of whether St Julian of Norwich was correct when she declared that “All will indeed be well, and all manner of things will be well”. We can hope and pray that this will prove true.

Is Hitler capable of repenting and making the journey of purgatory to his own salvation? Yes – the same with Stalin and all the loathsome abusers throughout history.

What has that got to do with me? Are all these evil people out of the reach of my influence? Through intercession, Jesus shares his work of redeeming with his people. I can pray for Hitler, and offer up spiritual sacrifice for him. I may not be inspired to do that by the Holy Spirit who directs all prayer, but in my prayer of intercession for the whole world, God may take some of it and actually apply it to Hitler.

You would think that one would have to pray for hundreds of years to work through such a task of intercession, but we are ignorant of the enormous power of the prayer of love. The spiritual world is the realm where faith moves mountains, and "a single act of pure love can do more good than many exterior works"(St John of the Cross). God takes our weak efforts at prayer and shoots them through with the infinite light of his love, so that their effects are out of all proportion to our effort. When will we really believe in the wonderful generosity of God and the power of intercession?

It may be that we have been dispirited because we have often asked God for specific results without them being granted, but that is because we have not penetrated enough into sharing the love of God which is active in ways too deep for us to understand. The more we contemplate and know the love of God, the more we submit all our requests to his wisdom. Then the Holy Spirit leads us to release in prayer graces whose key has been specially reserved for us to turn. He longs for us to join in his spiritual outpouring of grace.

What about Hell?

When I write these thoughts I am very conscious of the firm teaching of Jesus about hell and judgment. But I am struggling to reconcile that with the principle teaching of Jesus about the infinite love of God.

The understanding of the Good News has developed over the centuries. For example, in past ages, Christians have killed eachother over arguments about how to interpret the faith. That wasn’t Christian - it was broken human beings, not yet able to let the love and guidance of God lead them. Today we reject violence carried out in the name of God. Is it possible that we are beginning to allow God’s utter love to break through our age-old anger and frustration which causes us to want to punish evil doers and make them pay? Are we about to become so involved in intercession in our age that we can realistically hope for the salvation of the whole human race?

In another episode in ‘The Shack’ Mack challenges the Father to severely hurt the murderer. The Father answers him by turning the tables, and challenges him to pick which of his other two children are soon to die painfully. He cannot make such an awful decision, they are both precious to him. God explains that this is what it is like for him. How he can choose to maim one of the children he created? Whatever the murderer has done he is still God’s child.

No one can deny the dreadful potential of every free-born human being to choose to reject God and flee to everlasting hell. Our freedom is too enormous to prohibit that possibility. But the judge we face when we die is not a heartless God reading out a list of indictments. It is our entering into the light of the infinite love of God and, in that light, seeing ourselves as we really and realise our unworthiness. Each of us will judge ourselves and have to make the decision either to entrust our broken selves to the call of his love, or to remain shrivelled in our closed selves, which is hell. We truly have the potential to remain in that state for ever.

The very heart of Christian activity is to intercede through our prayer and sacrifices and so play our part in completing the work of Christ. That is how the totally powerful grace of God transforms the course of humanity. Now is the age of redemptive intercession.

What about God’s Justice?

God is strict. There can be no deviation or change in God. All things are obliged be brought into line with his decrees. When I write that, it sounds like a cold wind will blow all things into a rigid, pre-planned arrangement. But the wind is not cold; it is warm and wholesome. God’s justice is nothing more than his absolute resolution for his love to fill and order all creation well.

We sometimes speak of the immense suffering of Jesus as demanded by the Father in reparation for all the sins of humanity. But the key is the word ‘reparation’. It is all about repairing us, for which both Father and Son are prepared to pay any price. Jesus’ life and death revealed that there is something of deep pain in God until we are all back home in the warmth of his mansions, fully alive and complete daughters and sons. Jesus was willing to endure the pain of all our wounds opening in himself so that the Fathers ointment could sooth and heal us, enabling us to freely choose life with our Father. Justice is the no-holds-bared functioning of love.

Jesus tells us: “I tell you most solemnly, whoever listens to my words and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life; without being brought to judgment he has passed from death to life” (John 5: 24). The justice of God is joyfully at work helping us achieve rightness, not loading us with condemnation.

 think that contemplation actually is the stepping stone to intercession, until all is restored in Christ. I don’t think God wants an exclusive relationship with me. He wants me to share in the all-inclusive love he has for all his creatures.