Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity AD 2025

How could we know something that surpasses knowledge? Because that is what St. Paul says: “…to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” This is possible only when we are filled with “all the fullness of God” – the fullness that is His love. A love that requires one to comprehend its “breadth, and length, and depth, and height.”

Isn’t it remarkable that love is shaped like a multidimensional cross? Its breadth is enough to embrace everyone. Its length encourages us that true love will go the extra mile to ensure that no one is left out. Its depth is a testimony of God’s willingness to give Himself for His loved ones, even to the point of ultimate self-sacrifice. Its height paves the way to eternal life and heavenly glory for all who entrust themselves to the care of this love.

How deep is the love of God can be seen in the Gospel story of the raising of the young man from Nain. When Jesus saw the young man’s grieving mother, He had compassion for her. The original Greek text of the Gospel uses a word here that could be literally translated as “His bowels were moved with compassion.” Jesus’ compassion was downright physical: seeing the pain of that grieving mother, He was so pained that He could not resist but had to step up to the young man, raise him from the dead, and give him back to his mother.

This is the love that made the Son of God humble himself and die on the cross to redeem us and give us new life. This is the cross-shaped love that gives us the sure knowledge that nothing can separate us from God. In Jesus Christ, God has done for all humanity what He did for the young man of Nain: through His love, He has called us back to true life.