Divine Love

The great thing about God’s love is that it’s not determined by the object. God does not love us because we are good. God loves us because God is good. It takes our whole lives for that to sink in because that’s not how human love operates.

Human love is largely determined by the attractiveness of the object. When someone is loveable, nice, good, and attractive, physically or in terms of their personality, we find it much easier to give ourselves to them. That’s the way humans operate outside of the economy of grace. Divine love is a love that operates in an unqualified way without making distinctions between persons and without following personal preferences. We almost don’t have an outlet in our head to receive that notion! Divine love is received by surrender, a word frequently used by the mystics.

Richard Rohr