Love - that is the Holy Spirit within you - is your true self. Love is where you come from, and love is where you are going. It is not something you can buy. It is not something you can achieve. It is God's presence within you, called the Holy Spirit - or uncreated grace, as some theologians say.
You cannot manufacture it, dear reader, by any right behavior. You cannot make God love you one iota more than He loves you right now.
You can't.
You can go to church every day for the rest of your life. God will not love you more than He loves you right now. You also cannot achieve for God to love you less - not by an iota less. Do the most terrible things - steal and plunder, cheat and lie - and God will not love you less. You cannot change how God thinks about you! The flow is constant, complete, and is aimed at your life one hundred percent. God is for you.
We cannot diminish God's love for us. What we can do, however, is learn to believe it, receive it, trust it, open ourselves to it, and celebrate it, receiving the swirling invitation of the Trinity to join in the cosmic dance.
(Richard Rohr, from the book Divine Dance)
