Living Love

Christmastide (Saturday, 5 January 2019)

1 John 3:11-21. Psalm 100. John 1:43-51. (Please click the following link for the above readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/010519.cfm.)

“Our love is to be something real and active.”

For today's first reading, we have a very rich passage on the centrality of love in our Christian life. All our Christian living can be summarised in that one opening sentence: “We should love one another.” It is all we need; all the rest is icing on the cake. My companion commented to me more than once, “Your daily reflections seem to be centering on the theme of love almost always. Why don't you write on something else?” But is there anything else that needs to be said or written about? Isn't the first and the only commandment: to love?

Love is all we need. To talk about love, that's easier perhaps. But to live love, that may be the only thing needed. It is a life task. To master love we need a lifetime and more, because, as St Francis de Sales says, “The measure of love is to love without measure.” That makes it a divine quality: our human loves and efforts to love are only a faint reflection of God's love. Love becomes an imitation of God. Yet it is very clear to us that the more you embrace love in your life, the more you are open to compassion and forgiveness. Love seems to achieve what is impossible in our lives. Love is not an idea, but reality. We know for sure when love is real or when it is false.

So how to love at all? How to live love after all? The dynamic of receiving love and giving love is one and the same movement within us. That is, the more I allow myself to be loved, the more I can love you. The more I can love myself, the more I can love you and God. That's a beautiful paradox to be lived!

Now, the best description of God is in terms of love itself. God is a Relationship of Three Persons. And the truest relationship is love. Whatever is going on within God is a dynamism of love, a radical relatedness of love, a perfect communion of love between Three. And God is not just the Lover; God is love itself.

If we are made in God's image, then we too are relationships like God Himself. Therefore, love is not something you do; love is someone you are. It is your True Self. Love is where you came from and love is where you're going. It's not something you can buy, merit or attain. It is the presence of God within you, called the Holy Spirit, who is uncreated grace.

Incidentally and interestingly, using Richard Rohr's words, you can't manufacture this by any right conduct. You can't make God love you one gram more than He already loves you right now. You can't. You can go to church every day for the rest of your life. God isn't going to love you any more than He loves you right now. You cannot make God love you any less, either—not a gram less. Do the most terrible thing—steal and pillage, cheat and lie—and He wouldn't love you less. You cannot change the Divine mind about you! The flow of God's love is constant, total, and 100 percent towards your life. God is for you. 

You can't diminish God's love for you. What you can do, however, is learn how to believe it, receive it, trust it, allow it, and celebrate it, accepting Trinity's whirling invitation to join in the cosmic dance. That's why all spirituality comes down to how you're doing life right now.

How you do anything is how you do everything.

How you love anything is how you love everything.

(For a reflection on the gospel passage, please see https://anthuvanmaria.blogspot.com/2018/09/heaven-laid-open.html.)