Cedric Pisegna - God Loves You
Hi, I’m Father Cedric Pisegna. Welcome to the program. This is the fourth Sunday of Lent, and the Gospel for the fourth Sunday of Lent is from the Gospel according to John. Jesus said to Nicodemus, «Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned because they haven’t believed in the name of the only Son of God.
This is the verdict. The light came into the world, but people prefer darkness to light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things, hates the light, does not come toward the light, so that their works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God, the Gospel of the Lord».
We’re now in the fourth week of Lent, and Lent, as you know, is a time to get back to basics. It’s a season of purification and enlightenment. But I don’t think you can get back to basics anymore than realizing God loves you. That’s what the readings were all about, about God’s love for us. In the first reading for the Sunday of Lent, we hear about the exiles in Babylon being freed. Because of God’s love, we can be freed. The color for the fourth week of Lent is pink and it’s called Laetare Sunday. That’s a word in Latin which means «rejoice,» that if you’re in the pink, you ought to be happy. Well, because of God’s love, it ought to make us happy. And being set free as the exiles in Babylon were, or free from an addiction, or free from a sin because of God’s love, that ought to make us happy. The second reading, we hear that because of God’s grace, we are saved. God’s caritas, God’s love, his grace for us, received. That ought to make us happy.
Then in the gospel, we hear about, «For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes will be saved». Wouldn’t perish, but be saved. Now, that ought to make us happy. I’m hoping that during this program, you will receive God’s love for you; that God’s love will free you from any places where you’re stuck, like the exiles in Babylon; that God’s love will assure you of salvation like the second reading, we’re saved by grace; and God’s love will bring you salvation, as we heard, because God gave his only Son. I love what it says in Romans 5:8, very famous verse, that God proves his love for us by sending his Son to die for us. A lot of times we think, «Well, where is God’s love? I want proof of God’s love».
All you gotta do is look at a crucifix. God proves his love for us by sending his Son to die for us. This happens when a boyfriend will give his girlfriend a diamond ring. He’s spending a lot of money, he’s making sacrifices to prove his love for his girlfriend. Well, the proof of God’s love is simply looking at a crucifix, looking at a cross. I belong to a community called the Congregation of the Passion, Passionists. We were founded in 1720 by a man named Paolo Danei, subsequently canonized Saint Paul of the Cross, and he loved to meditate on the cross or the crucifix of Jesus. You’ll see on my heart I have what’s called our sign, and underneath are the words, in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, «The Passion of Jesus Christ».
Our first vow is to meditate on the passion of Jesus, which is the proof of God’s love. Saint Paul of the Cross had this beautiful saying when he would point to the crucifix, and he would always try to get everybody to concentrate on God’s love, and he would say, «People are looking for a miracle,» and he’d point to the crucifix and say, «This is the miracle of miracles». He said, «Everything can be found in the cross and the crucifix». He said, «It is the most overwhelming work of God’s love». God displays his love, he proves his love by creating us, creating the whole universe. But in a real precise, profound way, God proves his love for us by sending his Son to die for us on the cross. That was the gospel. For God so loved the world, how much? By giving us his only Son.
Jesus died on the cross once for all, and what we do is we remember so dynamically that sacrifice that it’s brought right into the present. We make present the one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross during mass and we remember God’s love. That used to be called, in the early church, an agape feast. When mass first began in the early days of Christianity, it was called an agape feast. That word «agape» in Greek means unconditional love, the unconditional love of God. See, the love of God is something that we do not deserve. It’s something that’s a reality that we cannot earn and we can’t merit, but what I love about it, and this is what I’m going to try to help you to do in this program, is we can receive God’s love.
We have a retired pope, at least as I’m filming this. His name is Pope Benedict XVI, the only pope to ever retire. He had written an encyclical, it’s a very high teaching in the Catholic Church, has a lot of authority, an encyclical that he wrote, and everybody was waiting for it. And since he was such a learned man and very scholarly, everybody thought it was going to be very intellectual, and you know, nobody would understand it. And well, the first encyclical that Pope Benedict wrote, and everybody was waiting for it, it was entitled, «God Is Love». Everybody was shocked by that because, again, they thought it was going to be all this intellectual, theological jargon and it was very simple. Because that’s what Lent does, tries to get us back to basics.
And perhaps the most basic theology that we have in Christianity is that God loves us and he sent his Son to die for us. That’s how he proves his love for us, that his only begotten Son, that he so loved the world. How much? That he gave his only Son. Would you ever give your children for somebody else? I doubt it. But God so loved the world. How much? That he gave his only Son. In this encyclical, he talked about… he used some Greek words for love, and there are many: eros, E-R-O-S, and philia, and agape. I already talked about agape. And the word that he used was agape. It means the unconditional love of God. As I said, God loves us, not because we’re good enough, not even because we go to church, not even because we believe. He loves us simply because that’s who God is.
«God is love,» the Scriptures tell us. And out of love, because of love, motivated by his own love, he breathed the world into existence and he created you and me. Heard a story about a grandmother, and it was Christmastime, and she bought all these gifts for her grandchildren. We’re talkin' about unconditional love, and if you want to know what unconditional love is, go to your grandmother if she’s still living. Well anyway, she bought all these gifts for her teenage grandson and teenage granddaughter. And she just wanted to get two more little gifts, and she went to a poster store at the mall and found this one poster of a young man surfing, cowabunga. She said, «Great, my grandson, he loves to surf,» and wrote down the number.
Found a nature scene as she flipped through the posters, and, «Great, my granddaughter loves nature,» writes down the number. Gives the numbers to the clerk and the clerk gives her two rolled up posters. She wrapped 'em up, put 'em under the tree. Now it’s Christmas morning. They opened up all the gifts and the last two gifts were the two posters. And the young man unfurls it and he sees this guy on a surfboard, cowabunga, and he loved it. And he says, «Grandma, thanks. Even though it’s winter, it gives me hope for the summer and I’m going to go surfing».
Now, the last gift to be open was the granddaughter, and she gets the poster, unfurls it, and… her mouth dropped wide open. What do you think she saw? She turned the poster around. It wasn’t a nature scene, it was a big, fat, pink hippopotamus, and underneath were the words, «But I love you just the way you are». And Grandma went, «Ahhh, they made a mistake! I wasn’t going to get you that». And the little girl looked at it and said, «Well, Grandma, that’s okay. I like it. I’ll put it on my wall». Well, about a month later, she gets a letter, grandma did, from her granddaughter. And she said, «Grandma, I gotta tell you, over the holidays I gained some weight. Nobody asked me to the dance and I’ve been feeling sorry for myself. And I come home, and I flop on my bed, and I look up at that big, fat, pink hippopotamus, and I see those words, 'But I love you just the way you are, ' and it strengthens me».
And that’s exactly what God’s love does. It strengthens us. It fortifies us. It changes us. I think about my own life and my struggles. When I grew up, I grew up in a middle-class family in Massachusetts and had a lot going for me with my family, you know, two sisters, myself, and great parents, and everything, but I struggled with a poor self-image, with negativity, with this whole thing about, «I can’t do it,» or «I’m not good enough,» or «I’m not good-looking enough». And when I encountered God’s love when I was 19 years old, it revolutionized my life. And instead of thinking, «I can’t do it,» now I think, «Bring it on».
Challenges make champions. And I wasn’t always like that. It was God’s love that brought a whole new self-image to me, brought a whole new way of looking at myself. I received God’s love. Even though there are 7.8 billion people, did you get that? Seven point eight billion people on the face of the earth, yet somehow God loves us personally, individually, distinctly. I thought about if you go outside and the sun is shining, there can be a billion people outside at that same moment on the face of the earth and the sun is hitting everybody. And the fact that it’s hitting everybody doesn’t diminish the light or the heat that’s hitting you. And it’s the same way with God’s love.
Just because there are 7.8 billion people, think about all the billions of people that used to be, think about all the billions of people that will be, doesn’t diminish the intensity and the power of God’s love for you and me. I hope that your heart will be open to receive the warmth of God’s love. Notice in that story that I told you about the pink hippopotamus, I used the color pink. Remember, it’s Laetare Sunday. Pink is the color. If you’re in the pink, you oughta be happy. And when you encounter God’s love, when you receive God’s love, when you believe in God’s love for you personally, it brings a happiness and a joy that I never knew before. And I was looking for happiness in my life as a teenager and everything I was trying wasn’t working, but God’s love is what brings the joy and the happiness. I love what it said in that second reading, «By grace we are saved through faith».
And again, in that first reading, the exiles from Babylon set free. And think of anything that you may be captive to or slaves to. God’s love is what sets you free. We need that power, the power of love. I wanted to share with you that I conduct retreats around the country, they’re called parish missions, and I also live at a retreat center. And at our retreat center in Houston, people come from all around Texas and Louisiana. They come on retreat, and oftentimes I will hear their confessions. And during their confession, you know, people are confessing their sins, and you can tell they’re kind of anxious and they’re burdened with these sins, and I always tell them, «Okay, I want you to let go of the guilt. Let go of the shame. You’re on retreat. Soak in God’s love».
You have to be open to God’s love. And it’s great that you go to confession. That’s what I want you to do. Confession, one of the sacraments, will help you to receive God’s love. But what I do is I tell people, «Okay, after confession, take a little bit of a walk. Soak in the sunshine. Breathe the air and let go of the guilt and the shame. Receive God’s love». And that’s what happened to me one time on a retreat. I make my personal retreat as a Catholic priest at least once a year. I try to go to a place that’s very quiet. I love silence. I love soaking in the quiet. And while I was on retreat, I did something interesting. I always pray to the Holy Spirit, «Lord, lead me, guide me, control me,» and I believe that the Holy Spirit leads me as I’m on retreat.
Well, I’m on retreat and all of a sudden I get this notion to take a sheet of paper, just like a yellow sheet of paper like this, and start writing down reasons to give thanks. And you know, it means work, but I started thinking, «Okay, well, thank you, God, that you created me. Thank you, God, that you sent Jesus to die for me on the cross. Thank you, God, for beautiful parents that I had. And thank you that I was born in the United States,» and you know, all these different things. And I’m writing 'em down, and writing 'em down. I filled up the whole page of the paper. It didn’t take me very long. Took a little work to think about things, but I stood there with that sheet of paper at the door.
And I was looking out at nature, and all of a sudden everything slowed down. And I began to get tears, and I put the piece of paper down, and I just went like this… and I was receiving God’s love. As you give thanks, and this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, «The will of God for you in Jesus Christ is to give thanks in all circumstances». Maybe when the program is over, you might want to just get a sheet of paper and write down a few things. You may feel something, you may not. Oftentimes I don’t always feel God’s love, but I love what it says in the Scripture, «We believe in the love that God has for us».
That’s right from one of the letters of John. We believe in the love that God has for us, because let’s face it, folks, oftentimes we’re oblivious to God’s love. We’re into our day, and we’re doing this, and we’re doing that, goin' through our schedule, and we forget. And that’s why we’ve got to take moments to give thanks and remember. That’s what mass is. Another word for «mass» is «eucharist» if you’re Catholic. That means thanksgiving, an agape feast, or taking the memory of the passion and bringing it right into the present, the one, once-for-all presence of the cross, sacrifice of the cross. Jesus died once for all.
So we’re not doing it over, and over, and over again. It’s that one present sacrifice of the cross offered to God, and we’re dynamically remembering, and it can be life-changing. God’s love is affectionate. Psychologists will tell us love is a decision. Yes, it is a decision. Well, God made the decision to love us by creating us, but God’s love as I’ve encountered it, he cares for us. There’s emotion. There’s affection. You ever read 1 Peter where it said, «Cast your cares on God,» like, throw 'em, «because God cares for you». That is the third step of Alcoholics Anonymous. You make a surrender to the care of God and it’s through the care of God that you can actually be set free, or let’s call it recovery from an addiction. And God’s love is intimate.
Notice how the word «intimate» is spelled. I-N, and that’s probably the best word we have in the English language for the closeness that God has for us. His love is in. «With» is a good word, but it doesn’t quite do it. Intimate, we’re immersed in God’s love. This is from the Bible, the acts of the Apostles, «In God, we live and move and have our being». God’s love is intimate. Intimacy denotes communion, oneness. God is intimate. I think the best image for intimacy is baptism. Baptism as a sacrament where we’re plunged into Christ. We are immersed. We are soaked with Jesus. We are in Christ and Christ is in us. And that’s a word that’s used in the Bible, «In Christ,» a phrase that’s used numerous times, 70, 80 times, I’m not sure, in the writings of Paul.
So God’s love is intimate, and also God’s love is deep. How deep? God so loved the world, as I said before, that he gave his only begotten Son. Wow. Paul wrote one time, «I pray that you will know the height, and the depth, and the length, and the breadth of God’s love and experience this love». That was his letter to the Ephesians. Well, there it is. I mean, we can go to the Grand Canyon and look at the deep. We can look up at the sky and see the stars and look at the expanse. God proves his love for us in that he gave us Jesus dying for us on the cross. Wow. Get in touch with that. Many of you are parents and you know what it is to sacrifice for your children. That is exactly what God is doing. God’s love is sacrificial, deep, intimate, affectionate.
And then God’s love lasts. He doesn’t just love us today, and then tomorrow he doesn’t love us because we’ve been bad. No, God’s love is stable. It’s not up and down. I love what it says in the Scriptures, «Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever». That’s from the book of Hebrews. And oftentimes when I pray the prayers, it’s called the Breviary in the Catholic Church, we’ll pray Psalm 118, «God’s love endures forever. Let the children of Israel say, 'God’s love endures forever.' Let those who fear the Lord say, 'God’s love endures forever.'»
We want to be soaked with that truth. And then God’s love is powerful. Seven point eight billion people on the planet. God created the universe. God’s love gives you the power to face your adversities and your trials. When I was younger, I had panic attacks and I was so afraid, but it was God’s love that gave me a new courage, the power of love. If you’re stuck in an addiction or some bad habit, as I said from the first reading, it’s God’s love that frees us and gives us the power to face our addictions and our bad habits, so that after facing it, we can move forward. I became daring, and bold, and determined when I was never that way, proactive and passionate, and it’s because I know that I’m loved.
And even if I’m not accepted by other people, I’m loved and that’s everything to me. And then God’s love revolutionized me. And many of you know that. You’ve been revolutionized by God’s love. And you can do whatever it is you need to do through God’s love. I wrote a book called, «You Are Loved»! and in this book I try to help people to see that, yeah, God loves the whole world, but you are loved. You are distinct, and individual, and one-of-a-kind. God created you with one set of fingerprints that nobody else has. Nobody is like you. You are loved. Every breath, every heartbeat, every moment, every thought is a gift from God to you and me. Soak in God’s love.
During Lent, we fast, we pray, we give alms, we read, we do penance, we reach out to others, we celebrate the sacraments, go to confession, celebrate mass, we read the Bible. Why do we do these things? To open us up not to merit, to open us up not to deserve, to open us up not to earn; to receive God’s wonderful, beautiful love. Why pink? Because we’re in the pink. God’s love makes us happy. I have never found joy… The joy of the Lord is our strength, and that joy is God’s love. That’s what we’re celebrating this week, and I’m praying that through this program you will receive God’s love. I knew a priest and he helped me to get into television because he was preaching on TV. His name was Father Mike Manning, and he would always conclude his program, «May God’s love make you smile». And I thought that’s a beautiful way to conclude every episode, and that’s how I want to conclude this episode. I’m praying that you will receive God’s love right now, and may God’s love for you make you smile.