Focusing on God’s love
When the sun is shining brightly you can take a magnifying glass, focus the sun, and can set a piece of paper on fire with it. Thomas Merton says that Jesus Christ is the magnifying lens which God gives us so that he can focus his love onto our hearts and set our hearts on fire with his love.
Every time we come to the Eucharist, says Father Brendan McGuire, God loves us so completely that he gives us Jesus Christ in his person. Why do we often miss the opportunity of receiving this love? One reason is that we may have an excessive love of self; secondly, we do not realize how much Jesus loves us, and finally, the scurry of our lives unbalances us.
In the rush of our daily lives, days fly by and the world spins faster and faster, pulling us in countless directions. It is hard to find time for Church, family and friends.
In Braving Thin Places Julianne Stanz describes centrifugal forces pushing us away from the core of our lives. Centrifugal force causes an object moving in a circulate path to be flung out and away from the center of its path. When apart from that center, the object destabilizes, splits, and falls apart. How true this can feel as it threatens to unravel the quiet within us.
Be still and know that I am God! Psalm 46:10 reminds us of God’s sovereignty. It would be well to remember, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.”
“Love your Lord, your God, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. This is the greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:36-40). This is the Jewish law that is called “Shema.”
The words of Shema are often written on a little piece of paper, rolled up in a scroll which is hung on the doorposts of Orthodox Jewish homes. When they pray, they tie it to their forearms or to their heads, a physical reminder to put it before their head, before their mind, before their strength. They are called to always love the Lord their God and creator.
We can see how the commitment of love works in our lives. When a couple first meet, there is some kind of spark, like this is the one I want to marry. That moment sets the direction for the rest of their lives. Remember the feeling! This is a sample of what God does for us.
Children remember when they feel loved by their parents. It may be when they are sick or something bad happens. Mom and dad wrap their arms around the child and love them. Again, that is how God loves us. That is the experience of Communion. Jesus, as God, wraps his arms around us.
When we seek God’s love, we need to look in the right place. There is a story about a man who lost something on the dark side of the street. He went over to the lighted part to look for it. “Why are you looking over here?” someone asked him. “Because the light is over here.”
When we seek help to find order from life’s distractions and disorders, let us seek the light of God’s graces to find the love of our creator and our redeemer.
(570 words)
