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After some time, Agape reiterated his proposal, "Andrea, let's get married so I can prove to you my good intention." Andrea said, "I am unworthy of you." Agape answered, "I don't care about who you are. The important thing is I love you and I want to marry you." Convinced by his sincerity, Andrea gave up her job at the club; and they got married. A few months later, in spite of the love and kindness Agape had shown her, Andrea started to feel uneasy about their relationship because of her past. One day, she left him a note saying: "Agape, I am unworthy of your love. Please, don't look for me anymore. Goodbye." Agape felt sad, but he was a man who would not easily give up. So he tried to find her, inquiring from her relatives and friends. |
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Then he tried to look for her in the nightclub where they first met. There, he finally found her. "Andrea, why did you leave me?" he asked. "I don't deserve you. You are an honorable man and my reputation would only disgrace you. I know that the love you have for me is true, but I am not worthy of it," Andrea replied. He was too much in love with Andrea, Agape said, "Do not worry about anything at all. It is enough for me that you have accepted my love." With this promise of Agape, Andrea returned to the arms of her loved one. But after a few months, she was bothered again by her feeling of unworthiness. This time she left her husband without saying a word. The moment Agape found out that Andrea had left him again, he started to look for her as before. He travelled all over the country, but failed to find her. One day, a friend informed him that his wife was in the USA. Notwithstanding the difficulty of finding her in that country, he set out to search for her. He checked out every possible place for her where-abouts until he came to a small nightclub in Las Vegas. There, he found his wife looking impoverished. Surprised upon seeing her husband, Andrea asked, "Why do you keep on following me?" "I love you, Andrea, no matter who you are, no matter what you do, I will keep on following you wherever you go," he replied. "Agape, I don't understand your love and kindness to me. Please, leave me alone, I want to live my own life." Agape sighed, "If this is really the way you want your life to be, I won't stop you. However, please keep in touch with me so that when you find yourself in trouble, you can call on me and I'll be around to help you. I'm willing to give up my life for you. And if ever you will decide to come back to me, bear this in mind: I'll always be waiting for you." In this story, Agape's deep affection for Andrea may illustrate God's love for us. In his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul says, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His Blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:6-11). Because of God's great love for us, He presented His only Begotten Son—our Lord Jesus Christ—as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. And when God forgives, He also forgets. However, we find it difficult to believe and understand God's love and forgiveness for us. We keep on ignoring His Word which tells us to repent of our sins and turn to Him. Instead of mending our ways, we continue to do the things that are against His Will, such as gambling, theft, murder, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, arrogance, false testimony and slander. |
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