Our aim is to please him (2 Cor 5:9)

The foundation of spiritual growth is love.  Do I love Jesus? Does my heart burn with love for him? Jesus wants us to love him: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind’ (Mark 12:28–32). As we grow in our faith, we come to understand that God wants our whole life to be centred on loving him.

‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ Our closest neighbour—even before our neighbour or our spouse—is first and foremost God. If I love God, my love for others will grow and be purified. Our lack of love in this world stems first and foremost from the fact that we do not love God enough. Hatred for others stems from a lack of love for Jesus. ‘I know you; you do not have the love of God within you’ (John 5:42). Most of our difficulties in the spiritual life stem from the fact that we do not love God enough. Sin is a lack of love for Jesus. If I grow in my spiritual life, my love for Jesus will mean that for nothing in the world would I want to harm Jesus. If I truly love Jesus, I will even accept suffering and death rather than sin. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus prayed: ‘Take me, Lord, before I commit a mortal sin’. But for us, even though we are active members, committed Christians, and consecrated persons, when we sin deliberately and persist in a state of sin, it is a sign that our love for God has not matured very much.

Jesus longs so much for us to love him that he implores our love: ‘Peter, do you love me?’ And Peter replies, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ He asks this three times. Three is a number signifying fullness. God begs for our love. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that ‘God thirsts for us to thirst for him’. When Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, ‘I am thirsty’, he is also speaking of a thirst that goes beyond mere water. It is a thirst for love. In a loving relationship, we want to hear the other person say that they love us. I would so much like to grow in my love for Jesus; that is the one thing I would love most in the world. Sometimes people say: ‘When I ask God for what I want, my prayer is over. I don’t know what else to say to him. I don’t understand why people spend an hour in prayer.’ In a marriage, a husband cannot be happy with a wife who merely makes demands of him, and vice versa. So in prayer, I can also take time to speak to Jesus like this: ‘Lord, I love you. Lord, my love for you isn’t very strong. Lord, increase it, make it grow; help me to truly fall in love with you. Lord, life is nothing if we do not love you. My life is nothing if I do not grow in my love for you. I have often done things for you, but I realise that my love is not as great as it ought to be. Help me to love you, Jesus’.

Pleasing Jesus

Anyone who grows in their love for Jesus will seek to please him. ‘I love my Father and I do what he has commanded me’ (Jn 14:31). Those who love seek to please and do not seek to hurt. Jesus loves the Father so much that his sole aim is to please him: ‘The one who sent me is always with me, because I always do what pleases him’ (Jn 8:29). ‘I have come, O Father, to do your will’ (Heb 10:7–8). Throughout his life, Jesus regarded ‘pleasing the Father’ as his sustenance. ‘My food is to do the will of my Father’ (Jn 4:34). Jesus loves the Father so much that he always obeys him and always pleases him. Love drives us to please others. Do I seek to please Jesus at all times? If you say you love someone, they will ask you what proves it. Sometimes a parent says to their children: ‘I do this and that for you. What do you do to please me?’ In a relationship, the one who loves stays in touch, gives gifts and seeks to bring out the best in the other person.

My love for Jesus must drive me to please him. If I examine my life, can I see what proves that I love Jesus? Can I point it out to him? But Jesus even says that ‘to whom much is given, much will be required’. The more I love Jesus, the more I will need to please him even more than usual each time. Normally, levels of commitment within a group or community should go hand in hand with the desire and determination to please Jesus. Normally, an Active Member III should seek to please Jesus more than an Active Member II, and so on. A Full Member should be a teacher of ‘pleasing Jesus’.  A consecrated person should always please Jesus. Sometimes it is others—the pagans or those who are not committed enough—who discourage us with their opinions, views and comments.

There are Christians who think they are very strong; it is as if they have nothing left to learn. They are smug and proud, and full of themselves. Yet the more I grow in my love for Jesus, the more I will please him a little more each day. If I live out the Word of God, I please Jesus. In the Movement of the Incarnation, if someone does not seek to please Jesus, they will make no effort to live out the Word of God.  In the world, people want to seduce; they want to attract attention; they buy fine clothes and jewellery; they wear make-up and style their hair to attract others and please them. Often, people seek to please men more than God, and in doing so, they sin. ‘For am I now trying to win the approval of people, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would no longer be a servant of Christ’ (Gal 1:10). Do I seek to please Jesus at least as much as I seek to please people? Besides, people let me down and will never love me as my heart hopes. Jesus, on the other hand, loves me infinitely, so why not please him? ‘My God, I want to do what pleases you’ (Ps 40:9).

Our main aim will be to please Jesus: ‘Our aim is to please him’ (2 Cor 5:8).

Henri Bayemi