The Primacy of God’s Love

March 23, 2018 | Daniel Ayala

A friend and fellow CBFL servant occasionally says something that resounds in my mind and heart. “We should never tire of hearing about God’s Love.” How true that statement is. I named this blog post The Primacy of God’s love because the word primacy is a great description of what God has been revealing to me about His love. To be honest, I googled the definition of primacy to make sure I was using the right word. Google says primacy is “the fact of being primary, preeminent, or more important.”

Even looking from a distance, the most popular bible verse in American culture is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son….” There is something in us that longs for the love of God. Why? Because it is at the foundation of our being. St. John Paul II said, “... we are the sum of the Father’s love for us….” It is the basis of our identity and our calling. Before there was anything, God’s love existed. It is something the Lord has been and continues to teach me. He has revealed that even in times of pain and suffering, His loving hand was still present. One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 136, which is like a litany of God’s love. The Psalm repeats “God’s love endures forever” (NAB). Jesus would have prayed this Psalm after the last supper as he was heading to the garden of Gethsemane. As Jesus knew what lay before Him, He knew the Father’s love was still there. No matter what, His love still remains. His love was there before the universe came into existence, and will continue. It is more important than anything else we have before us. It is the most important thing we need to live as disciples and missionaries. It is more important than being extensively trained. Let us remember what St. Paul says in the 1st letter to the Corinthians. “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Cor 13:1-3.

The first letter of John is all about the primacy of God’s love. 1 John 4:8 “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” We will never fully understand the love of God until we are united with Him and see Him as He is. As 1 John 3 tells “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” So many times, I fool myself into thinking I have heard plenty about God’s love. I fool myself into thinking I have a grasp of the grandness of God’s love. God in His Mercy again shows me there is so much more to His love.

Because God’s love is primary, so preeminent, so important, let us never tire of hearing God’s love. Let us desire it. When we go to Mass, when we go to confession, or when we hear the first talk of the semester, Discovery Weekend or conference, let us be transformed by the message, remain in it, cling to it, and share it.