On Becoming Love

We often use the term God is Love. Many scripture references will call this to our attention. Here is one that always touches my heart:

“We have recognized for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. “
1 John 4:16 – New Jerusalem Bible

This quote also points out something that always resonates with me: there is no daylight between God and Love, something which may of the Church’s doctors have pointed on their spiritual journeys.

John Duns Scotus (a Franciscan priest and theologian) made this clear in his teachings not long after the formation of the order. He preached that because of this knowledge, “God is love”, that it, therefore flows that we understand something in our own lives. “If it not of love, it is not from God.”

This straightforward phrase was revolutionary at the time. When many were preaching our faith based on fear and retribution if we did not follow the law, obscuring the primary facts and reasons for the Passion of Christ and its effect on our lives. That God (the Father) gave His Son to us as a gift. And this gift has remained with us always (Matthew 28:20). The gifts we use to make His love, expressed through us in the Body of Christ, came to us at Pentecost and we need to continue to exercise them with love always in the forefront of our thoughts, words and actions.

This is easier said than done. And so we struggle. However, the remembrance of “God is Love” and the fact that we are the instruments of His incarnation (we remain in Him as He remains in us) can keep us mindful of this love.

This coming week, I would suggest we can think of ourselves becoming love. The more we imbibe the love God gives us each day, each breath, each heartbeat, each morsel of food, each sip of water, all remind us of this love. All we need to do is exhale His love, walk His path, swallow His desires for us, and we can become aware of this love in a different way.

A way beyond gratitude, beyond requests, beyond thankfulness. It is how we exercise this love by letting it Go. Go out into the world. Go into our every thought. Go into the words we speak. Go into listening compassionately instead of judging.

Let us become love on our journey, as the love implanted grows and spills out in our lives.

On Becoming Love

I saw Him again today,

In the gratitude which I felt within,

Like a warm soup had flooded my interior,

On a cold winter day.

Peace, should not be a buzz,

But this time it was,

I could feel it in there,

Love spilling out inside me,

Uncontrollably,

I feel it in my arms,

My flushed face,

Warmly it ran down my legs,

Speechless, I say my silent thank you.

For this mystery. This grace.

So is this what it really is to love?

To feel the pain of a homeless person,

To see the smile on the face … who I smiled at for no other reason.

Than she was my sister.

To see the love in my family,

Expressed in so many unspoken ways,

And those who have become my family,

In a unity we seek but seldom talk of,

Of nations united. United as one.

One, single, state of belonging.

The Body of Christ.

So, now what to do.

This love is beyond understanding,

But I have knowledge of it now.

I don’t just feel it.

I am it.

Not because I own it.

But because it owns me.

Not because I say it,

But because I can only act through it.

Not because I preach it,

But because I carry it, carefully and humbly.

Not because.

It just is.

So, here it is.

My desire is met.

God is there.

I am there.

Waiting for more. And demanding nothing.