What I’m Looking for: ‘This is How Much I Love You’

We’re broken, unworthy — but children of the King…

“I believe in the Kingdom come then all the colors will bleed into one… You broke the bonds and you loosened chains, carried the cross of my shame…You know I believe it. But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for,’’ — Bono.

What if you were heir to a great throne — and a family of drama and conflict? Do you fight for your family or go your own way?

Father Mathias Thelen became a priest while his brother became the father of four sons. Shortly after the eldest was born, Father Mathias found himself dreaming, imagining his newborn nephew, feeling “great love.’’

“I became my brother… this gaze was so powerful… I remember being overwhelmed, thinking ‘This is what parents must experience when they see their kids for the first time’… It wouldn’t matter whatsoever what this kid would do in his life, I would love him until he dies.’’

The young priest woke. It felt so real. Then Father Mathias heard a voice whisper the purpose of his dream:

“This is how much I love you.’’

How could our Father, the perfect, all-powerful creator of the Universe NOT love us in the most perfect way?

“One of the greatest temptations in Christian life is to not believe the Father loves us with this much love, sometimes feeling not worthy or that it’s too good to be true,’’ Thelen said. “Jesus took what we deserved so we could have what He deserved.’’

The most common reason people become atheists or pull away from the Church or their family? Feelings of isolation, bad experiences with earthly fathers or father figures who make them distrust other father-child relationships and father figures.

Megxit: We saw that sort of conflict play out in the press last week when Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced plans to leave Great Britain, withdrawing from their “senior status’’ in the Royal Family. The British press reported Harry rushed the statement to keep his unhappy wife from having a “meltdown.’’

Just two years ago, we read of issues she had with her own father, who wasn’t invited to their wedding or their baby’s christening. They will now go their own way.

A fairy tail “happily ever after” marriage in British castles wasn’t enough? Brokenness in families in not unusual: It is why the first Father sent a Son: so we would be able to heal the divide and relate in a different way.

The first wounded relationship was between a father and child: Eve and Adam questioned and challenged the main request the Father made of them. As a result of such splits, we begin to behave like we’ve been orphaned but Jesus comes to fill that void.

“It’s difficult to believe that God the Father delights in us and is pleased with us, which is why I talk about inner healing so much but when we don’t believe this, we live like orphans,’’ Thelen said. “Jesus knew who He was. He knew He was the beloved Son of the Father who was sent to reveal the Father to the world. He was sent to reconcile the world to the Father.’’

God the Father, Thelen said, also told His Son: Open the eyes of those who can’t see me, bring freedom to people, people who are filled with anxiety, depression, addiction. I’m sending you to bring freedom to my people.

When we know who we are, we can accomplish our Mission.

“Every single person who’s baptized has a unique call within this mission of Jesus… When clergy and laity don’t know who they are, when they don’t know God as their Father, what tends to happen is that they live like orphans in the Church. In that world, the evil of clericalism can develop,’’ he said.

Through clericalism, we convince ourselves that only “church people’’ do the ministering while people in the pews passively “pray, pay and obey.’’ That “deprives the laity of their high calling, their beautiful dignity and ability they have to bring Christ into the world,’’ he said, stressing:

“God has a special mission for each of you that I can not fufill and He’s given you an empowerment to do that,’’ Thelen said.

The Mission of Church is clear: “Go and Make Disciples of All Nations.’’ (Matthew 28:18). As baptized parts of the body of the Church baptized also as priests, prophets and kings, we too are called to that mission, he said.

“I have a heart to see all of you come alive in your vocations, to come alive to God, to know who you are, to know who you are so we can bring His love and truth and justice to a world where there’s not much love, there’s not much truth and there’s a lot of injustice…

“I want the laity to come alive to the idenity and the authority that they carry in the power of the Holy Spirit.’’

The Difference between an orphan and a child of God.

Orphans:

“Orphans seek to serve God in order to please Him, to try to get Him to love them, to try to show God or prove to God that ‘I’m worth loving.’ There’s always a feeling of anxiety… An orphan doesn’t know who they are. They don’t know their value, their dignity and so they tend to be self referential in their life and they tend to set their sights a lot lower about what is possible in their Christian life.’’

Someone who knows they are truly a child of God:

“A son or a beloved daughter… already knowing that God loves them, responds in love and does it freely. They don’t have to earn God’s love because they already know it can’t be earned so they have a freedom about them…

“They know who they are because they know our Father is the King of the Universe. I know who I am and I can shoot higher. People who know that they’re sons and daughters, often, will not settle for less because they know who they are… He is pleased with you and has a special plan for each of your lives.’’