Return To Me
“God is Love, and he who abides in Love abides in God." - 1 John 4:16
The greatest gift we have received is the gift of Love, for God is Love and the Word from His heart is the Love that came to earth to bring us back into the loving arms of our heavenly Father, to share that Love for all eternity.
As the days grow ever darker, and the storm clouds of discontent gather on the horizon, once again God extends His gift of Love, calling us back from the darkness and evil that infects our world.
These words from our heavenly Father were impressed upon me in prayer.
“You will be a voice in the desert of this time…
“My child, I am preparing you for the trials ahead to be a voice in the desert for My children, to remind them of My love for them. My Son gave you His Mother. She will help you. She will lead you to safe places prepared for you against the evil of this world, and My Son will sustain you there.
“See the signs I am providing you, the signs my Son spoke of when He walked on this earth which mankind has raped.
“I give you these signs not to frighten you, but so that you can speak My warning to My beloved children and call them back to Me.
“Make this message known. Your Father is waiting with open arms. He does not want to punish, but to correct and love. Make this message known. Speak of the signs and call My children back to Me.
Your Father is waiting with open arms,” pleading for us to return to His Love, as He has called all His children down through the ages.
One has to wonder at the ways He calls us – apparitions of Jesus, as to St. Faustina, calling us to His hour of Mercy. Sending Mary, His beloved daughter and the Theotokos, Mother of His beloved son, Jesus, to call us back to prayer, fasting, reparation and repentance, as she has at Lourdes, Fatima, and other places, beckoning us to come to her son, Jesus.
Consider our world – the frequency and violence of natural disasters from earth shattering quakes, to tsunamis, to level 5 tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, cataclysmic flooding and hurricanes; the wars and rumors of wars, the persecutions of believers, the trend towards a world where everything is relative, there is no sense of sin or evil, and no regard for the sacred. Everything trends towards utilitarianism. Look at the signs. There is an air of futile hopelessness and suicide is at epidemic proportions, especially among the young who should be so full of life and vitality.
“When God saw the world falling to ruin because of fear, he immediately acted to call it back to himself with love. He invited it by his grace, preserved it by his love and embraced it with compassion. When the earth had become hardened in evil, God sent the flood to punish it and to release it…” St. Peter Chysologus (Office of Readings, Thursday, Second Week of Advent, Vol. 1, p.235)
And so He has done down the ages, purifying His creation, offering us His Love, even to that Love becoming one of us and stretching His hands on the cross in Love to redeem us and bring us back into atonement - At One ment - with Him, to fulfill his prayer that “they may be one with You, just as You are in Me and I am In You. “ (John: 17:21)
Our Father is calling us, inviting us back into His love. Will we respond? Will we reach out as little children, to Him, calling to Him, Abba, Father? He awaits that small gesture of ours to reach out to Him. One small gesture to mitigate the storm that is coming, to avail ourselves of His mercy and His love.