Day 24- March 21

Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Reflection

“We have been fascinated by the exploration and conquest of space in our time. We have been made aware of that vast world of planets now being reached.
There is another conquest in the realm of faith that fills us with wonder. St. Bernard describes it: ‘Boundless in time and space he loves us. Shall we set boundaries to his love?’ His words express a challenge and open up to us a vision of God who reveals a love without limits.
In the life of Jesus on earth even a couple of examples express his boundless love. There was no road he would not travel to hand on his message. “To other cities” he must go. No malady that his healing hands would not reach…His final proof of limitless love came when he expended his arms on the cross, from east to west, to heal the whole family of God.
The love that touched St. Bernard and made his life a love-song, evoked a like response from the heart of a young girl from the same region of France eight hundred years later. Elizabeth of the Trinity was entranced by the thought of the limitless love of Jesus. “How rich God is in mercy. With what an excess of love he loves us!” (Ephesians 2:4) St. Paul’s phrase “excess of love: became the theme that directed her life. She said, “There is a word of Paul that is life a summary of my existence, that could be written over each moment of my life: ‘because of his excessive love.’ Yes, all the graces of my life—they arise from his having loved me all too much.”
For Bernard, love, boundless; for Elizabeth, excessive. Shall we set limits?”
Watch how this passage is linked with our gospel lectionary text tomorrow…


Prayer
Lord Jesus, make my heart ever more generous in responding to your boundless love of me.

Reflection and Prayer from John Moloney, The Time is Now (Dublin: The Columba Press, 2001), p.36.