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This last Sunday, we anticipated the Feast Day of the Elevation/Exultation of the Cross - this coming Sunday, September 14 - by hearing in the Liturgy the glorious passage of Jn. 3:13-17. Embedded in that passage is the famous and well-known verse of Jn. 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
The great Fathers of the Church offered some wonderful commentary on this verse in their scriptural exegesis, as well as in homilies and treatises. I would like to offer a small taste of their words to help us further draw out the implications of the extraordinary revelation found in Jn. 3:16.
Here is St. John Chrysostom (the "Golden-Mouthed") commenting on Jn. 3:16 in a passage that has been described as "the Intensity of God's Love and Our Response." And, as usual, St. John draws a sharp moral point from this endlessly rich verse:
"The text, "God so loves the world," shows an intensity of love. For great indeed and infinite is the distance between the two. The immortal, the infinity majesty without beginning or end loved those who were but dust and ashes, who were loaded with ten thousand sins but remained ungrateful even as they constantly offended him. This is he who "loved." For God did not give a servant, or angel or even an archangel, but "his only begotten Son." And yet no one would show such anxiety for his own child as God did for ungrateful servants ...
We put gold necklaces on ourselves and even on our pets but neglect our Lord who goes about naked and passes from door to door. ... He gladly goes hungry so that you may be fed; naked so that he may provide you with the materials for a garment of incorruption, yet we will not even give up any of our own food or clothing for him ... These things I say continually, and I will not cease to say them, not so much because I care for the poor but because I care for your souls.
Homilies on the Gospel of John 27.2-3.
