Last week I made my annual retreat with the eight other priests in my support group. We reflected on the Gospel according to Luke to see how it might help us grow in our relationship with others and with God.
What stands out most for me in Luke is gracious love. Jesus comes across to me as the gracious love of God in person. He loves people simply because they show up. His treatment of the tax collector Zacchaeus is a very moving example of unearned love. Because he is working for the Roman occupiers Zacchaeus is treated by the Jews as an outcast. Jesus simply calls him down from the tree and goes to his home for dinner.
The parable of the Prodigal Son is for me the most powerful teaching on God's gracious love in the whole Bible.
No matter what the son does the father's love is constant and when the son returns home the father welcomes him without placing any conditions on his love.
I was in my mid-thirties before several experiences brought home to me the reality of God's unearned love. As it gradually dawned on me that I did not have to, and in fact could not, earn God's love, I felt like a great weight had been lifted from me.
Probing deeply into Luke's Gospel deepened my conviction that God's love is freely given and helped me to surrender even more completely to God's gracious embrace.
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