“You Have Loved Me” by Joseph Veneroso

“God the Father” by Pierre Mignard (after 1664), National Gallery of Art, Source/Photographer https://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=87552 (PD-Art, PD age)

“YOU HAVE LOVED ME

Though exiled from Eden and rebellious Not willing to be my brother’s or sister’s Keeper, even when their blood cried out To You from earth to heaven for vengeance, You still marked me in my banishment Showing all that, despite my guilt, You have loved me.

Even when I sold my brother into slavery And famine seized all in the land You used my sin to raise him up with power That he might show mercy to me, a sinner, Feeding me and filling my greatest hunger For reunion and community, proving again You have loved me.

Delivering me from slavery’s cruel chains, With mighty signs and miracles, You heard My plea and answered by calling me To terrible freedom where out of fear I erected idols in Your place and longed To return to the security of old ways and still You have loved me.

When thirst and shame forced me To draw water in the heat of day, You came Offering to quench the longings of my heart With spirit and truth.  Overcome by Your Acceptance of our differences, I ran to tell Others of Your mercy, not daring to believe You have loved me.

Along the way I anointed Your feet, Wiped Your face, helped carry Your cross, Wept for Your fate, listened as You cried out Against God’s abandonment and watched You die, and taking into my arms Your body Bruised and bloodied, I realized at last You have loved me.

You opened my ears to hear the cry Of the lowly, my eyes to see their suffering, My hands to help free the oppressed, My heart to break for the least of these Brothers and sisters, for they are You Compelling me to love the poor because You have loved me.”

–Joseph Veneroso, Maryknoll Missionary [1]

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[1]  Maryknoll Magazine, Spring 2026, pp. 3-4, “You Have Loved Me by Joseph Veneroso, MM.