Living in Love
What would the world look like if each and every one of us were perpetually living in love? You know, that warm feeling you feel from head to toe that burst forth deep from within. Well, in heaven love is all there is. All who reside in heaven experience their entire existence living in love, bathing in the essence of God.
When we choose love we choose God, yet, all too often mankind struggles with this choice. Instead of choosing love we choose hate, anger, resentment, envy, gossip, exclusion, and on the list goes. Sadly, we choose the opposite of love all too often in the world today. When we choose anything but love we place ourselves outside the hedge of God’s fatherly protection and comfort. Welcome to the world my friend. Even those in Jesus’ day, as we see in today’s Gospel, partook of gossip and lies instead of love – and love (Jesus) was right in front of them!
God’s Commandments
God has given us a beautiful promise that guarantees our happiness, peace, and eternal bliss. In our first reading today we see that not only will we experience an abundance of blessings, our descendants will also be blessed to live their lives within God’s fatherly love and protection. All we need to do is follow his commandments. This path will lead us down a journey where we spend our days living in love for all eternity. Yet, somehow we fall short. We sin and as a result, we do not fully live the life God offers us. Yet, God loves us beyond all measure and he patiently waits for us to choose him. He understands it’s hard for us here on earth.
Seeking Love
To seek love is to seek God – the natural state for each and every human being. Remember, we are all created in his image – even those who live far outside the hedge of his fatherly love and protection. Each and every one of us desires an intimate relationship with our creator; however, in this fallen world many have lost their way. Rather than seeking God, many seek false idols that lie and offer a false promise of love. In the end, such idol seeking serves to separate them from God and his love.
A Fish Out of Water
Let’s think for a moment about the relationship between a fish and water. The fish is completely immersed within water. Water is everywhere, it is even inside every cell of the fish. Yet the fish doesn’t know this, it simply goes about its life doing what fish do. All the while water is found in every aspect of its being – the fish is living completely in water. If the fish were to leave water for any length of time it would die.
Like a fish immersed in water, we continually spend our lives living in love. Love is the container God has placed his children in, yet, unlike the fish, he has given us free will to choose him – to choose love. In order to fully live the life God offers us we must choose love. This calls us to love our brothers and sisters, those who are also sojourning through life and experiencing their unique trials and tribulations.
To remove ourselves from his love leads to pain, heartache and spiritual death. God the creator of the universe is the God of love and he has placed us within his milieu of love. Just as a fish cannot live outside of water, we cannot live outside of love. So why would we chose anything other than love?
We All Belong
Fear can hold a strong grip on any human being. It can cause us to seek the opposite of love. At the core of fear is found a belief that we do not belong, that we are excluded. Given our interdependence on others in the world this rocks our very soul. Once afraid we will do crazy things to exclude others, all in an attempt to belong. How often do we say “I belong”, yet “you do not because you look, speak, or behave differently”? However, we are all one body in Christ.
Like those in today’s Gospel who rejected Jesus and John, we can do all kinds of things we think will please God, yet, we can do them without real love in our hearts. We can “play a flute” or “sing a dirge” without love in our heart just like they did in Jesus’ time. We are called to love as Jesus loved and this includes loving those who are excluded like the tax collector and the sinner. We are all God’s creation and given this, we all belong to him – even those who have lost their way.
How to Love Like Jesus
So what steps can we take to transcend exclusion and begin living in love? I believe every time we catch ourselves judging another, hating another, or excluding another we are presented with an opportunity to grow in deeper love. This also holds true when we are the one being judged, hated, or excluded. So try this – the next time you are either the one judging, hating, or excluding or you are on the receiving end, I invite you to pray for the other person involved. It can be a simple prayer or a more elaborate prayer. Maybe a Hail Mary, an Our Father, a decade of the Rosary, a Novena. The point is to pray. Because it is through prayer that God’s love expands and heals the pains humanity suffers from.
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NRSVCE)
Want to Learn More?
If you would like to read more about the painful grip exclusion holds over us and how to transform and receive greater happiness and peace I invite you to read a page on my website: Exclusion and Family Hearthache
We can all enjoy life by living in love and we can all receive the abundant blessings God has for us – yet, we must choose him my friends.
I hope you find your way home towards the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ – the one who is love himself. May you speak and think words of love, forgiveness and mercy as you sing and praise of God’s glory! – Carolyn
Sacred Heart of Jesus – have mercy on us.
Mother Mary – pray for us.
Saint John of the Cross – pray for us.
Today’s Readings Isaiah 48:17-19; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; Matthew 11:16-19
My Book
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