Lent is a journey that leads us to the heart of Christianity: God's love for us expressed concretely and fully in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Lent clearly tells us that Christianity is a life lived concretely, shaped by God's love. Love has only one desire: unity between Lover and Beloved.
Yesterday, we meditated on the fact that God wants to see and love in us what He sees and loves in Christ. The more we live as Jesus did, the clearer our identity as Baptized and the Love of God gets stronger in us. We take a further step, today; we now look up and look at God. And the Spirit in us cries out "Abba, Father."
We dare to call God "Our Father." How many times have we said this prayer? 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? Yet, how many times have we actually paid attention to what we said? Immediately we understand something that is very important: God is not only something we talk about but must especially someone we talk to. This someone is a person who relates to us in Love. God is someone that allows us to relate to Him in the most human of all relationships: parent-child. "Father." Regardless of our experience with our earthly fathers, we know that behind this word there is all that our hearts desire: needs for guidance, protection, comfort, support, etc. This is who God wants to be for us. The word Father also leads us to think of relationships. To be a Father means that there is a family. To call God our Father means that we believe we are never alone: not only God is always with us but that we have brothers and sisters all around us. There are many people who dare to call God in the same way. While they relate to Him, they also claim a relationship with us.
Lent is a journey that leads us to the heart of Christianity: here we find that what God's love does in us is to transform our single "I" into a "We."Becoming aware of this reality, that we are a family, allows us also to grow in hope and joy. We are not in this alone. We can rely on each others.
Praying the Our Father also allows us to understand that God wants us to be involved in His work. Since the beginning of creation, God created Adam and wanted him to be involved in creation. This work of sub-creation has not ended. We know we continue the work of the Father everywhere we go.
Every word we say, every gesture we draw carry the imprint of the one who Loves us. Whenever we meet someone, our words are like a seed that can be planted into the heart of this person. The seed. we hope, will grow into a Tree, the Kingdom of God that lives in each one of us.
Yesterday we learned that we are to love everyone. Today, we want to take a further step and be the first to love. We want to be those who can't wait to plant the seed of God's love into people's heart. We do not wait for the other to be loving towards us; we love first. If the other doesn't respond to our love, we continue to love. We believe that the seed planted will not return to God without bringing fruit. We hope and pray that all the people we love today will be part of our Bouquet of Love that we want to offer our Father when we see Him face to face.
1 comment:
I like the idea of being one family in God's love, and theoretically that is what we should be. However, practically speaking, I don't think it'll ever happen given the imperfect nature of Man. I think there is only One we can truly rely on and it is the strength and courage we have from knowing He is always with us, knowing that we can always rely on Him, that enables us to reach out to our brothers and sisters with love, even knowing there's a good chance others may disappoint us, may not be reliable, may hurt our feelings. I believe I can love my brothers and sisters in Christ, I can reach out first and continue to reach out with love, but I don't think I can "rely" on them for much. Thanks for a thought-provoking post :-)
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