The Steadfast Love of the Lord

08-02-2026Pastor's LetterFather Wilson

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In our Second Reading for today, St. Paul writes with startling confidence: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” He then lists hardships that can feel overwhelming—“tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.” And yet the Apostle does not end in despair. He adds, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us,” and he finishes with an even greater assurance: “neither death nor life… nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35, 37-39)

This passage is not naïve optimism. It is a proclamation about God’s faithfulness. The Church teaches that God’s love does not fade: “God’s love is ‘everlasting’… [and] my steadfast love shall not depart from you.” (CCC, 220) In other words, the difficulty of life may press on you, but it cannot cancel God’s love.

At the same time, we are not excused from effort; we are not removed from the struggle. St. Paul’s confidence does not replace effort; it grounds it. The Catechism urges us to hope for perseverance “to the end,” so that we may obtain the joy of heaven as God’s eternal reward given with the grace of Christ. (CCC, 1821)

St. Francis de Sales helps us understand why this matters. Perseverance is ultimately a gift of God: God guides, supports, and strengthens the soul through trial until the end. And because it is a gift, we are not left to struggle alone—we are “bound to ask it continually,” using the means God has given: “prayer, fasting, almsgiving, the Sacraments, the companionship of good men, hearing and reading God’s Word.” (On the Love of God, Book III, pp. 9-11)

When hardship comes—when distress grows strong and fear tempts the heart to draw back—pray the message St. Paul places before us: Lord, let me cling to you in love, not fear. St. Augustine notes that St. Paul emphasizes the “love of Christ” as the unbreakable bond: we hold fast to Christ by love, and no suffering is strong enough to sever that bond.

May the Lord keep us faithful “until the end,” and may His everlasting love strengthen us in every trial. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.” (Lam 3:22,23)

All the best…in Christ.