When you see the blood and water flow forth from the side of Christ, know that the blood comes from every broken heart and the water from all the crying eyes in the world. If we seek unconditional love and eternal life, then we need to say yes Lord to His Love. We need to say, Jesus I trust in You.
The Church teaches us to offer up our sufferings to God and place them on the Cross. This is not a situation of misery loves company. This is the only way our sufferings can be redemptive. We must learn to grieve with God so He who is love can fully embrace us even in our sufferings. That full embrace of God is only possible if we let God embrace us. He can never force his love on us, nor can we fully receive his love unless we say yes to God.
I need to accept all that God has planned for me, even when that includes the sufferings of this earthly life. I need to accept that in this earthly existence life is fragile and love can be lost. This does not mean life is without meaning nor love is without significance. The opposite is true. The meaning of life is known when we sacrifice for love. This sacrifice is not denying nor ignoring one's own needs. The opposite is true. Sacrificing for love is offering the full, sincere gift of self to another whom God has given as one's beloved. Just as Christ has done for me, I am called to do same for another, for my beloved.
Your beloved may be your spouse, your sibling, or your closest of friends. Your beloved is that one person in your life whom you can be your truest self. Your beloved is the one with whom you can be in that most vulnerable space as you offer yourself as a sincere gift, trusting that your beloved accepts all of you.
This is what God has done for us. He offers Himself, fully vulnerable, as the most sincere gift to us. When we sin, we reject God in his vulnerable, sincere gift of self. In sin, we reject God's love. In our sins, God grieves because He is to be our most beloved of all beloveds.
I imagine God grieves in my rejection, neglect, or loss of His love. Knowing the pain of grieving personally, I vow every moment to love God evermore. I know that I will fail at times, but in sickness and in health, I vow still the same to love. I ask for his mercy and forgiveness when I fail to love Him as He deserves.
In my own grieving, I realize evermore the depths of God's love for me. Not because I grieve like God, but because God grieves ever the more than I could possibly imagine. God's love is greater than my best love, His grieving is beyond what I can comprehend. The price of His love is The Cross where Love becomes redemptive and salvfic, where Life has meaning.
In this earthly life, love and grief will always be intimately connected just as life and pain are connected. Yet with God's grace, his plan for love and life is worth the grief and pain. This life in Christ is worth every painful experience, worth every grieving moment. Why? Because unconditional love and eternal life are worth the price, which Christ has already paid.
