Love is sufficient of itself... It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I love because I love, I love that I may love. Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. St. Bernard
The excerpt above, from a sermon by St. Bernard, and included in today's office of readings, speaks of that which is both the joy of the life in Christ, and the fulfillment of the commandments. It is therefore both descriptive and instructive. It speaks of that which is the both the object of longing and passion and its reward.
Through the many seasons of my life, and especially during that part of my life when I recall being most mindful of the search for God, that which stands out most clearly is love. It is though from the very beginning of my calling upon God I have doubtlessly been aware that love is the fulfillment of that toward which I reach.
"Love is sufficient in itself" say St. Bernard. It is that which both fulfills every longing, and it is that which motivates us to serve God in a perfect and pleasing way. Love is for the sake of itself. For when it is perfect, love reflects the beauty of the Creator and it is he who is the source of the longing of the heart. The heart was made for God and can be satisfied by no other.
Recently I was questioned about why I chose to become Catholic. Of course there were many reasons and I felt somewhat like whatever I answered would be insufficient; however, on further reflection it was clear to me that my choice was born out of love, one born as a matter of the heart. Becoming Catholic was easy due to the fact that it is a religion born of love, and that it is one where love is made present to us constantly in the Eucharist.
My journey to Catholicism involved many friends who helped me to see and to experience the fact that the object of my longing was not too far away at all. Without any doubt at all I realize that the journey to Catholicism has been a journey to Christ and a journey toward perfect love. It began long before I considered the Church as my home specifically. Nevertheless my heart was being prepared by an openness to the art and music of the Church and especially, in a mysterious way, to the Mother of Our Lord.
When we reflect honestly I believe that we all can find a place in our lives where we intensely desired love. It may be that the object of our longing was at the time a special person or friend in our lives. We must learn to see that God was the real object and the source of the longing in our hearts. For years I searched unsuccessfully for the fulfillment of desire for love. Such longing can take us many places and we can be come sidetracked or mired in the cares of this life easily. Ultimately we must learn that only God can satisfy our deepest longings. Also, what a great joy it is to discover love sacramentally, especially in the Eucharist but also in marriage, service, forgiveness, and healing--each providing the love that leads to eternal life.
Every heart was made for love, yet the secret is to learn that the real object of our desire is transcendent, and that although we can experience God through the people in our lives and through creation we must ultimately look to that which alone can survive into eternity. Still in a paradoxical way everything, every person, that we encounter in this life can become for us a lighted pathway to God.
Those who give up on love are the most dangerous among us; bin Laden and Bush rush to mind, as do any who counsel us or cling to the counsel to kill life for our own greater good.
Those who don't give up, even if they don't know where it all comes from and leads to, teach us the most, like my Aunt Bessie who did know, and who wrote my incredibly violent father a letter filled with love and hope (and tender but real admonishment), which he kept all his life and which I found after his death, so that it goes on blessing. No one will ever know how grateful I am that she did not consign him to hell. She was the one relative who considered him love-able. Or like middle-aged and deeply screwed up Dave G. who didn't and probably still doesn't know the source of love, and who was fostered around to many homes, many of them more abusive than the loveless home he was first taken from, but who still trusts that someone will care, because that is what he has found -- that not everyone gives up on love, even if seemingly too late for him.
Once when very ill with pneumonia, I bordered on being delirious after 3 days and nights of not sleeping at all, but I've never forgotten the "delusion" of that time: that everyone who has ever been in our life, every one, has been a gift from God. Even the mailman? The barber? The postman? The bakery lady? Yes. Every exchange, every word. Even enemies? Yes. Gift. They brought us or another closer to Him. Even the homeless guy/gal down at river's edge? Yes. A guest in our lives, but a crucial one: "..and the foxes have dens, but.."
We must learn to see that God was the real object and the source of the longing in our hearts. Yes. "God is love," and we can know nothing of love and thus nothing of God, until we opt to love, which will cost us everything, yet paradoxically gives us more than a 100% return, which we are always to pass to others.. 'cause it, like chocolate, will only melt in the casket, right?
Posted by: C.O. | August 20, 2007 at 10:48 AM