Real Love and God’s Constant Love

February is dubbed as the “Love” month as we celebrate Valentines Day on February 14. The celebration becomes month-long activities due to its commercialization. But why do we celebrate Valentines day? We celebrate it because it is innate in us to love, not only our partners in life but also our entire family, friends and other individuals who are dear to us. However, nowadays it seems many don’t believe anymore that love will last forever. It is evident in many broken relationships we had in our society today. With that let me share with you Fr. Joseph Galdon’s view about “real love” and the “constant love” of God to humanity from his book “The Mustard Seed”:

Fr. Galdon said that “real love is there in the days of courtship. It is present on the wedding day. But it is also there when the marriage grows old, when the wife is no longer as beautiful as she was on the wedding day, when the husband is no longer as dashing and romantic as he was when he was courting his Juliet. Love is there when the children are lovable infants, but it is also there when they are troublesome teenagers. Love is there in the early, happy days of marriage, but it is also there when the storms come–in sickness and in financial troubles. When the romance begins to wear thin, love is still there. It is the ever fixed star that looks on the storms of marriage and is never shaken. In the restless searching and thoughtless hurts and sins of human life, love is always there. It is the star that keeps us going in life. We don’t always understand what love is or what it means, but we know deep down how great it is.”

In addition, Fr. Galdon quoted the following lyrics of a song “Yahweh’s love will last forever. His faithfulness until the end of time” to describe God’s love. He further said that “the great boast of the Jewish people in the Old Testament was that their God was a faithful God. His love for them never changed. God promised Abraham that He would love him and his descendants forever. He made the same promise to Isaac and to David and to Moses on Mount Horeb. And He kept His promise. Even when the Israelites wandered away from God, even when they forgot the God who loved them and set up false idols to worship, God never forgot His love for them. Even though the Israelites changed, God’s love for them never changed. His love was the star every wandering Israelite bark.”

Also, Fr. Galdon believe that “God’s love for us is that same constant love. Even when we sin and do stupid things, God still loves us. God’s love never changes. That is the greatest gift in the world. When St. John was dying, his disciples asked him if he had any last message for them. ‘No,’ he said, ‘Nothing new. Just the same–love God, love one another and everything will be all right.'”

In conclusion Fr. Galdon has this to say, “Human love, and God’s love even more, does bear it all out, even to the end of time–and beyond.”

On that note, may we learn to respond to God’s love by loving Him with all our heart and soul. Let us also give importance in making our relationship work by loving not only those who are dear to us but also other people who need love unconditionally.

A man’s love for God can be measured by the love he has for the man he loves the least. – Author Unknown