The truth is, God never lends – He always gives

I have a weakness for puns. I am a writer, and writers play with words and puns are one form of wordplay. Alliteration is another: I have an addictive attraction to alliteration! With puns, it’s even worse. I trained myself to make puns, until the habit took over and became obsessive-compulsive. Then I had to de-program myself. Once I had the habit under control, I could let myself make puns to a reasonable degree.

My article for Lent last year was based on an alliteration borrowed from a German art song: “Love is So Lovely in Lent.” My article for Lent this year is based on a pun. The word “Lent” is taken from the German word, “Lenz” meaning springtime. However, with a tendency toward punning still in my brain, I unavoidably think of Lent as being lent to us. It is a time that the Church provides for us to spring-clean our souls so that we are ready to deck ourselves at Easter in the finest graces that God offers us.

It is a time of purgation, like a mini purgatory, but like purgatory, it is limited, not everlasting. Lent passes, Easter remains. Lent has a beginning and an end, and we can see that end even before we begin; Easter begins at the Resurrection, and it has no end. It is eternal. We can opt out of it, which would be incredibly stupid of us, but even if we do, Easter continues, and its celebration lasts beyond all space and time.

When God gives, he gives forever. He is no lender, taking back what he gives. When I was 12 years old, we were being prepared in religion class to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Among the teaching we received was that God created us, and he maintains us in being. If he should ever stop thinking of us, we would cease to be. Philosophically, that is probably true, but I think that, theologically, it is a shocking thing to say. It is like a mother telling her child, “if you do that again, Mommy won’t love you.” It made me feel like I was standing on a trap door that could open suddenly under my feet for no reason whatever.

Yes, God is love, but we were also taught that God’s love is beyond our understanding. So, putting the two ideas together, I was left with the belief that at any moment, God, in his inscrutable love, would stop thinking me into existence, and I would cease to be. Of course, being God, he would still love me in some way, but he would have ceased to love me into being.

When God gives, he gives forever. “God did not make death, nor he does not delight in the destruction of the living. For he created all things so that they might have being”. (Wis. 1, 13-14) Philosophically, it is true that we exist because God wills us into being at each moment. But God is that infinite love that can never cease loving. The idea that God could stop loving us is as ridiculous as saying that water can stop being wet, or fire can stop being hot. I can choose to walk out of God’s love, but that love will still surround me. One definition of hell is that it is the glory of God as experienced by those who reject it. We can say the same thing about love: hell is the love of God as experienced by those who reject it.

To reject God’s love is foolish, but to accept it opens up an infinite horizon of joy, peace and exultation. The Church lends us Lent to prepare for Easter, and Easter reminds us of the infinite torrent of love that God pours out on us unendingly, lifting us up to his joy for timeless celebration. The world around us may seem built of trap doors ready to engulf us, but we can walk confidently in the strong and trustworthy love of God.

Sister Gabriela of the Incarnation is a member of the Discalced Carmelites order in Flemington. Learn more at www.flemingtoncarmel.org.