Love Uniting Itself to the Object It Loves

Divine Appeal Reflection - 188

Today, consider in Divine Appeal 188: "My love cannot be overcome by any obstacle. I was conceived by love so that mankind may prepare themselves for great mysteries. I love mankind so much and this gives Me great joy to stay among mankind under the form of food. I willed that upon earth souls may share in My sacramental life where I dispose Myself and remain day and night in the prison of My tabernacle. I love mankind so much. I need them to know that love does not rest until it has given and united itself to the object it loves."

“I love mankind so much.” These words reveal not merely the intensity of Christ’s affection, but the astonishing mystery that humanity has become the object toward which Divine Love continually moves. Our Adorable Jesus reveals a Love that cannot remain distant from what it loves. It does not wait for the beloved to become worthy before drawing near; its very nature is to seek, descend, restore, and unite . Scripture repeatedly unveils this divine movement: God searches for Adam when sin has hidden him, pursues Israel through repeated infidelity, encounters Jonah in the depths of his flight, restores Peter after his denial, and welcomes the prodigal when he finally turns toward home . In each scene, the initiative comes from Love:(cf. Jer 31:3; Rom 5:8; CCC 218–221) God moves toward the one who has wandered, because distance from Him does not extinguish His desire for communion . Calvary(cf. Rom 5:6–8) then reveals a Love that allows itself to be wounded rather than withdraw from the one who wounds it . The Incarnation reveals the mystery in its fullness:(cf. Jn 1:14; Phil 2:6–8) God does not merely speak about His love from heaven but enters human existence, assuming our nature and accepting the poverty of Bethlehem, the hiddenness of Nazareth, and the vulnerability of human life . Yet the Eucharist carries this mystery even further: the Love that came near refuses to become distant again. Christ remains sacramentally present, continually offering Himself and drawing humanity into His own communion . Thus, when Our Adorable Jesus reveals, “I love mankind so much,” He unveils not merely the intensity of His affection but the unceasing movement of His Heart toward union.  Divine Love does not remain because the beloved has become lovable; it remains because Love has chosen the beloved and refuses to abandon its desire to unite itself with him .

The words “I need them to know” enter an even more hidden chamber of the mystery. Why would Divine Love desire to be known? Because being loved without recognizing that one is loved leaves the heart capable of living as though it were abandoned. The father may provide everything for his child, yet the child may still believe himself unwanted. Likewise, humanity can live every moment within divine providence while failing to recognize the Presence sustaining it (cf. Acts 17:27–28). Revelation is therefore not merely information about God; it is an act by which Divine Love awakens the beloved to the Love already surrounding him. Zacchaeus(cf. Lk 19:1–10) discovers that Jesus has sought him personally . The Samaritan woman(cf. Jn 4:7–26) gradually realizes that the Stranger beside the well knows the thirst hidden beneath her life . The disciples at Emmaus(cf. Lk 24:13–35) discover that the One they thought absent had been walking with them through their disappointment . Here lies a profound apostolic mystery: the Christian does not create God's love for another person; he helps another person recognize the Love that has already been pursuing him. This changes the meaning of evangelization. Evangelisation involves more than just talking about Christ ; it entails enabling His presence to be identified through a Christian's lifestyle. The Christian then becomes more than a messenger carrying words about Divine Love; his or her life becomes a living testimony through which another person can begin to recognize the Love being proclaimed .Divine Love wants to be accepted so thoroughly that it gradually changes how the soul sees, reacts, and loves until self-giving reveals the hidden God that resides within, mercy reflects Christ's mercy, tenderness reveals His tenderness, and patience bears the character of Christ's patience. Love seeks to be recognized because recognition can awaken trust, and trust gradually opens the heart to surrender . When a wounded soul begins to discover that God has remained present even where it felt forgotten, suffering is no longer interpreted only as abandonment, failure no longer appears to be the end, vocation becomes a response rather than merely a burden, and even wounds can become places where grace is encountered and received .

The deeper wonder is that Divine Love does not merely seek union; it waits for the heart to become capable of receiving it. In the Eucharist, Christ remains exposed to human freedom—adorable, approachable, yet never forcing Himself upon a soul . Bethlehem reveals Love accepting littleness (cf. Lk 2:6–7); Nazareth reveals Love accepting obscurity; Calvary reveals Love accepting rejection without withdrawing its mercy ; the Resurrection reveals Love creating new beginnings from apparent defeat ; and Pentecost reveals Love turning fearful hearts into courageous witnesses . The Eucharist therefore does something mysterious within humanity: it teaches the soul to desire what Divine Love desires—not merely to possess Christ, but to surrender itself to Him . Even the tabernacle becomes a school of divine patience: Christ remains when souls hurry past, waits when hearts forget, and offers His presence without demanding recognition . His hiddenness is not absence; it is Love giving the soul the freedom to seek Him. The mystery becomes personal when Christ desires to reproduce His own manner of loving within the soul that receives Him . The Eucharist therefore exposes the contradiction of receiving Love while deliberately refusing to give ourselves. A Christian may receive Communion while withholding forgiveness, adore Christ while exploiting another person, pray for holiness while protecting vanity,(cf. Jas 1:22–24; 1 Jn 4:20–21) or speak beautifully about charity while remaining impatient with those at home . Authentic Eucharistic communion gradually breaks this contradiction,(cf. Jn 13:14–15; CCC 1397) teaching the heart that the Christ received at the altar must become recognizable in the way one treats others . The farmer who quietly shares part of his harvest with a struggling neighbour, the employer who refuses to profit from another’s desperation, the student who chooses honesty when cheating would guarantee success, or the exhausted mother who continues serving without recognition can become Eucharistic signs within ordinary life . Through such hidden acts, Christ’s self-giving begins to take human form. He gives Himself to us so that our existence may gradually acquire the grammar of His love: receiving without possessing selfishly, suffering without bitterness, serving without demanding recognition, forgiving without keeping accounts, and giving without constantly asking what will return to us . Communion is therefore not simply Christ entering our bodies; it is Christ teaching our entire existence how to become an offering of love .

But the Appeal reaches its most mysterious point in the words “and united itself to the object it loves.” Giving is not the final desire of Divine Love. Union is. A person may give a gift without giving himself. One may give money, advice, time, medicine, food, or assistance while remaining inwardly distant. Christ's Love goes infinitely further: He gives Himself so that the beloved may live in communion with Him (cf. Jn 6:51–56; 15:1–5). This is why the Eucharist is such an unfathomable mystery. Under the sacramental signs, the Creator gives Himself to the creature, not merely to assist the creature but to draw the creature into communion with divine life . The vine and branches reveal this more deeply than ordinary friendship: the branch does not merely receive something from the vine; it lives from the vine (cf. Jn 15:4–5). Paul's mystical language reaches the same mystery when he speaks of Christ living in him (cf. Gal 2:20). Here the soul encounters a frighteningly beautiful question: What part of me have I allowed Christ to love without allowing Him to possess? Perhaps the wounded memory that must remain unforgiven. Perhaps the ambition that must remain untouched. Perhaps the desire for admiration. Perhaps money. Perhaps sexuality. Perhaps a relationship that God is asking the soul to surrender. Perhaps the secret need to control how others perceive us. Divine Love does not seek one compartment of the personality; (cf. Mk 12:29–30) it seeks the whole person .  The mystery is therefore not simply that Christ wants to be near us. He wants every interior resistance to communion to become transparent to His Love. The tabernacle then becomes a mirror: Christ has surrendered Himself without reserve. What remains reserved in us?

The final mystery is that Divine Love's union with the beloved is never sterile. Christ unites Himself to the soul so profoundly that the soul can become an instrument through which His Love reaches others. The disciples(cf. Acts 1:8) encounter the risen Christ and are sent as witnesses . The first Christians reveal the fruit of communion with Christ:(cf. Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–35) generosity, prayer, unity, shared life, and care for the poor . Mary receives the Word and immediately carries Him to Elizabeth,(cf. Lk 1:39–45) showing that genuine encounter with God naturally becomes a movement toward others . Eucharistic devotion therefore cannot end at the chapel door; what is received must become visible in daily love . Divine Love follows a sacred movement: Love seeks → reveals → gives → unites → transforms → sends. The married couple must allow Christ’s sacrificial love to enter their disagreements, the doctor must unite compassion with clinical skill, the teacher must join knowledge with patience, and the employer must allow justice to govern authority (cf. Eph 5:25–33; Lk 10:30–37; Jas 2:1–9). Thus, the Christ received in the Eucharist gradually becomes recognizable through the life of the one who receives Him . The religious must allow hidden prayer to become hidden service. The young person must carry Eucharistic reverence into the digital world where another person's dignity can so easily be destroyed. The elderly person confined to a room can still participate profoundly in this movement through intercession and offered suffering (cf. Col 1:24; CCC 1508). Here lies the extraordinary apostolic secret of the Appeal: Christ's Love does not rest when it has reached us; it continues moving through us. He desires not merely that we become people who have received Love, but people through whom another soul may discover that Love has not abandoned it. The soul becomes, in a mysterious way, an extension of the Eucharistic movement—Christ giving Himself through one life so that another life may be drawn toward communion. Divine Love invites humanity to enter the communion for which Christ prayed: that those who receive Him may be pulled into the unity of divine life . In order for the soul to gradually change into the likeness of the One it receives, love first seeks the beloved, then displays itself so that the beloved may recognise it, gives itself so that the beloved may receive it, then connects itself to the beloved. Then the transformed soul itself becomes a place where Divine Love can be encountered by others . The movement is therefore profoundly Eucharistic: Christ seeks, reveals, gives, unites, transforms, and sends. Divine Love rests only when the soul freely opens itself to this communion, allowing every barrier of fear, selfishness, sin, and resistance to be surrendered so that nothing remains between the Lover and the beloved except the freedom of a heart wholly given to God .

Prayer

O Our Adorable Jesus, let us understand the Love that never rests. Reveal to us that we are sought, loved, given Yourself, and invited into union. Remove whatever separates us from You. Make our hearts living tabernacles through which Your Love reaches wounded souls, until our entire existence becomes communion, offering, and apostolic love. Amen.

Sr. Anna Ali of the Most Holy Eucharist, intercede for us.