Why I Love Jesus Meme

Julie D at Happy Catholic tagged me with the following meme.

The Rules:
Those tagged will share 5 things they "love" about Jesus. Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers. Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here with their name so that others can read them.

Wow a chance to show my piety! Oh wait once again something more about me than Jesus. The scriptures are really tricky sometimes. They sneak up on you with passages that you read over and over then suddenly knock you over. To paraphrase Chesterton you can look at something 99 times, but are really in danger the 100th time that you look at them.

"Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:47

An annoying passage like this makes me wonder just how much I really love Jesus. I certainly know that I have had a lot forgiven, but I also doubt that my love in return is commensurate with it. Since I have been forgiven a lot, I should love a lot. So with that in mind I will still try to make my way through the meme, though I couldn’t just stop at five.

• I love the view from his shoulders as he carried me back to the flock.
• I love Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in that he gave himself to us in such a personal and surprising way.
• I love that truth is a person and that we can talk to the person of Jesus and hopefully one day live with him.
• That he loves me more than I can possibly love him, but that through his grace I can still try to love him more.
• I love that he got through a hard-headed atheist skeptic like myself and that I can now say with St. Augustine "Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
• I love his reflection in the saints.
• That he loved me where I was at, but didn’t leave me there.

I would like to love him only for himself without any consideration of my final end.

I tag: Creative Minority Report, Play The Dad, Flying Stars, Catholic mom of 10, Blog by the Sea, Christopher Hitchens