He loved us first
From a discourse On the Contemplation of God by Saint William of Thierry, abbot (c. 1085 – d. 1148)
He loved us first
Truly you alone are the Lord. Your dominion is our salvation, for to serve you is nothing else but to be saved by you! O Lord, salvation is your gift and your blessing is upon your people; what else is your salvation but receiving from you the gift of loving you or being loved by you? That, Lord, is why you willed that the Son at your right hand, the man whom you made strong for yourself, should be called Jesus, that is to say, Savior, for he will save his people from their sins, and there is no other in whom there is salvation. He taught us to love him by first loving us, even to death on the cross. By loving us and holding us so dear, he stirred us to love him who had first loved us to the end.
And this is clearly the reason: you first loved us so that we might love you – not because you needed our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you.
In many ways and on various occasions you spoke to our fathers through the prophets. Now in these last days you have spoken to us in the Son, your Word; by him the heavens were established and all their powers came to be by the breath of his mouth.
For you to speak thus in your Son was to bring out in the light of day how much and in what way you loved us, for you did not spare your own Son but delivered him up for us all. He also loved us and gave himself up for us.
This, Lord, is your Word to us, this is your all-powerful message: while all things were in midnight silence (that is, were in the depths of error), he came from his royal throne, the stern conqueror of error and the gentle apostle of love.
Everything he did and everything he said on earth, even enduring the insults, the spitting, the buffeting – the cross and the grave – all of this was actually you speaking to us in your Son, appealing to us by your love and stirring up our love for you.
You know that this disposition could not be forced on men’s hearts, my God, since you created them; it must rather be elicited. And this, for the further reason that there is no freedom where there is compulsion, and where freedom is lacking, so too is righteousness.
You wanted us to love you, then, we who could not with justice have been saved had we not loved you, nor could we have loved you except by your gift. So, Lord, as the apostle of your love tells us, and as we have already said, you first loved us: your are first to love all those who love you.
Thus we hold you dear by the affection you have implanted in us. You are the one supremely good and ultimate goodness. Your love is your goodness, the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son! From the beginning of creation it was he who hovered over the waters – that is, over the wavering minds of men, offering himself to all, drawing all things to himself. By his inspiration and holy breath, by keeping us from harm and providing for our needs, he unites God to us and us to God.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint William of Thierry, (c. 1085 – d. 1148) a theologian and mystic, was abbot of the monastery at Liege. He was born of a noble family, and studied at the BenedictineMonastery of Saint Nicaise at Reims together with his brother Simon. Both embraced the religious life, and both became abbots. Prior to becoming abbot in 1119, William had become friends with Saint Bernard and formed a life-long bond with him. He was most interested in joining Bernard at Clairvaux, but instead, continued his duties as abbot of the monastery at Reims and remained there for the next eighteen years. When infirmities brought him to retirement in 1135, William withdrew to the Cistercian abbey at Signy. Here, amid almost constant suffering, he divided his free time between prayer and study. According to a contemporary annalist his death at the age of 63 occurred about the time of the council of Reims under Pope Eugenius 1148.
William left behind many written works including letters to Saint Bernard, “On the solitary life”; ” On the contemplation of God”; “The nature and dignity of Divine love”; “The Mirror of Faith”; “The Enigma of Faith” “On the Sacrament of the Altar” a commentary on the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; a defense of the true idea of the Trinity and “Commentaries on the Canticle of Canticles”