April 26, 2011 Tuesday: Octave of Easter
Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”Click to hear audio homily
Observations on Love
from Lessons in Love: Moving Toward Divine Intimacy by Anne, a lay apostle
At what point do we examine love and determine that it is too costly an endeavor? In terms of humanity, the line is movable from one person to the next and one relationship to the next. In heaven, there is no line. There is no limit to the sacrifice willingly given for others.
Where was the line for Jesus? There was no line, and that is the point of the Passion. Jesus gave and gave until His body expired. We, who are not yet in heaven, are compelled to love in a pitifully limited way because of the filter of our humanity and consequent self-interest. This, our limited ability to overcome self and love in purity, is coupled with the limitation of others in accepting pure love. Given these two apparent handicaps, it could be called amazing that any love be exchanged on earth at all.
And yet, just as God is present in our humanity, so is love and the potential for love present in our humanity. As beginners in love, we must study the Great Lover and try to emulate Him. How does Jesus love us? Jesus knows that we have difficulty in accepting too much love too fast. He knows that it is counterproductive to swamp us. Jesus knows that while love must be patient, it must also be constantly alert. When love is constantly alert, it will never miss an opportunity to be present when the smallest opening arises.
What is the experience of this for the recipient? When we have accepted the love of Christ, even for a brief instant, we are calmed. An interior awareness of our dignity and unique value begins to grow. With the awareness of our own dignity comes a greater awareness of the dignity of others. In other words, it is only when we accept pure love from Christ that we can give pure love to others. We could observe then that those who exhibit the greatest amount of pure love for others are those who themselves have been the greatest recipients of pure love. When we accept the love of Christ, we then have something of value to offer to others. Absent this divine love, we can only offer a love to those around us that is rooted in self, that is exploitative, suspicious, and cynical. It is this selfish love that seems to abound in this time and which does so much damage.
