QUID VULTIS MIHI DARE

Wednesday of Holy Week

01 April, 2015

QUID VULTIS MIHI DARE

"WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO GIVE ME?" This is the question that Judas asked of the chief priests. We live somewhat calculated lives. There is little that we do, which we do not perceive to be to our advantage. In our zero-sum world we train ourselves to be on the side of gain, and even in our relationship with God, we are prone to ‘keep faith’ because we have more to gain than we have to lose. That is, until changes in lifestyle make it too much of a sacrifice for people to commit to God. This is the reason why many estrange themselves from the Church.

Fear of eternal damnation becomes a gamble worth taking for such people, when they see the immediate ‘gain’ of their sinfulness. This is why we need the ‘New Evangelisation’ to renew the faith of the ‘lost’ and in the process reinforce our own. This is the call of Pope Francis, to infuse our faith with love; not our corrupted, mortal concept of love, but the Divine Love of God that is limitless in its outpouring.

In the love of God there is no counting of cost. It is pure selflessness in its giving, leaving the giver no less complete having given. It is love for the sake of love – not the unrequited love that we fear, not even the requited love that we so often seek, but the eternally prerequited love perfect in its proceeding from the complete perfection of the infinite God, and made known in our time by the perfect love of Jesus Christ. Participation in this love is Evangelii gaudium – the joy of the Gospel that drives out fear and makes us whole, so we will never have to ask, “What are you prepared to give me?”