An Unlimited Potential to Love

We have seen that our world is broken. People live every day in poverty. Depression, loneliness, sinfulness, deprivation and separation from God’s love are all rampant in our society. In our own country, in our own communities, even in our own homes, Christ’s love is present, but ignored. So many live in agony. We know them and we know their anguish.

But we also know the love that our God has for everyone. He loves you, individually, so much that he died for YOU! He endured a physical pain unbearable to any mortal, inconceivable to any one of us! Even more, he carried the burdens of loneliness and betrayal. Our Lord was cast out by his people, denied by his best friends, shunned, ridiculed, mocked, humiliated, tormented in every mental, emotional, and physical way that you can imagine, so that we would never have to experience such loneliness, persecution, humiliation, and despair. Our God and Our King became human and suffered through everything that afflicts us and did so to a degree that we will NEVER experience, because of his eternal love for us and so that he could be with us andsave us from those incredible burdens. None of us now must live through such pain, because God’s love protects us. We need not be lonely, we need not be depressed, we need not be afraid, or worried, or embarrassed, or in pain, because HE IS WITH US! Always. When you are all alone, HE IS THERE. When no one else understands, HE UNDERSTANDS. When you simply can’t, HE CAN.

What a tremendous gift.

But as we know, there are many still in the dark. Our brothers and sisters still live with these needless afflictions of every form of poverty. This is where we WILL create change in the world. This is how we will shape the world and serve God’s people, our sisters and brothers. Each of us commands a tremendous potential to create change in the lives of others. The ability that exists in every person to spread the love of Christ is unlimited. THERE IS NO LIMIT TO GOD’S LOVE. That being said, there is no limit to the change that you can create in this world. Know this, and believe it.

Each one of us has the responsibility to spread the love of Jesus Christ. This is a challenge that we take up joyfully because of its liberation of ourselves and those we are serving. I invite and encourage everyone who reads this to share your tremendous God-given talents, and use those talents to share the most amazing gift that we all have in common: share our Lord’s love. This is not something that requires you to travel to the jungles of Ecuador or even venture outside of your own community.

Smile. Through God’s love we have been given this tremendous, infectious blessing that will change someone’s day for the better.

TALK ABOUT YOUR FAITH! Urge people to come to mass with you, to pray with you. Share this most glorious gift with everyone you come in contact with. Know that as you share and give to others, your faith will grow and your convictions will be strengthened.

Take time to listen to friends, classmates, co-workers, anyone that you suspect is having difficulty seeing God’s love in their life. As you know, many of us experience the very same discomforts and tribulations, and NO ONE STRUGGLES ALONE.

KNOW that you are making a difference – your actions are changing lives all the time – and that you are doing the work of the Lord. Together, by living in the example of Jesus Christ and the Apostles and Saints, we are building His universal kingdom and undeniably making the world a better place.

And just as each member of our mission team caught the fire of God’s love in Ecuador, and maybe as you are catching the fire reading about our experiences, those people – friends, family members, neighbors, complete strangers – all our sisters and brothers in Christ will be ignited by your love: by Christ’s love in you.

-Kyle Blackmer

- Edited by KK Lukasavage

-Photography by Danielle Natorski, Rosie Scavuzzo, and Stephany Velosa