About a year and a half ago I wrote an article on the topic of love, and what +distinguishes it from taste (i.e. loving from liking). +[1] This article is similar, but instead of +contrasting love with taste, we're going to be contrasting it with desire.
+ +I once heard an expression in Spanish that went as follows: "Dios te ama +como eres, pero no te quiere como eres." To roughly translate into English: +"God loves you as you are, but He does not desire you as you are." The key +verbs here in Spanish are amar and querer. The first verb refers +to what I had described in previous article: a desire for goodness for the +other person. The second, although often translated as "love" as well, truly +refers to a "wanting" or a "desire".
+ +So what is it that this sentence means? To put it plainly, God loves us +because He desires what is good for us always. He wants us to grow and become +more fully what He created us to be. And He loves us regardless of how we are; +or more accurately, He loves us especially when we are struggling or in pain. It +is at these moments when He shows His great mercy. Yet, He doesn't desire us as +we are, for we are impure and (often) tainted by sin. He is God, who is goodness +itself, and therefore cannot be in union with something tainted like us.
+ +This may seem like a grim picture, but this is where God's mercy and love +take hold. It is true, He does not desire us in our tainted state of sin, but +out of sheer love He extends to us His grace for purification, to make us clean. +He does so through the Sacraments of cleansing: Confession, Baptism, and the +Eucharist. And even for those who die and have not yet fully divorced themselves +from their sin, He offers the purifying grace of Purgatory to cleanse our souls. +He gives us every opportunity to become pure, to become saints, and to be +desired by Him. And all we have to do is to repent, to pick up our cross, and to +follow Jesus Christ, His only Son.
+ +In this month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we trust in His blessed Heart, in +His infinite love for us, in His mercy. And we ask Him that He mould our hearts +to His, that we may learn to love as He does, and that through His grace we may +become sons & daughters worthy of being desired by God. If it has been a +while since your last Confession, consider doing an examination of conscience, +and bringing your sins before the Lord, that He may forgive you, and heal you. +And may we pray especially for those who, in particular during this month, find +themselves furthest from God, that by His grace they may be lead to Him.
+ +Have a very blessed month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
+ +