I recently re-read an article written by Rolheiser where he talks about what lies at the heart of our faith, "the deep truth that we are unconditionally loved by God". While we may know this, we find it difficult to believe.
It's hard to internalize this fundamental truth for we rarely experience unconditional love in our lifetimes. Much as our parents, relative and friends love us, they love us better when we conform to their idea of what we should be like.
Plus our experience of love is usually tainted by expressions of love that are not love at all but "expressions of self-serving manipulation, exploitation, or even positive abuse".
No wonder it's so difficult to believe in love, especially unconditional love.
Rolheiser recommends we "kill" the incarnations of our past selfs, and not allow our past experience and past wounded selfs mar our present belief or vision of God.
To add to that, I would like to suggest that we get to know the very heart of Jesus by poring over and meditating on the gospels and the collection of letters in the New Testament.
The more we see and understand how He embraced humanity with love in everything He did during His short time on earth leading up to His ultimate sacrificial act of love, the more we are able to see Him acting in our lives today and experience in a very personal and real way His unconditional love.
Every act of random kindness is an act that bears the mark of Christ's unconditional love for us, whether we realize it or not, and whether we are the recipient or the initiator.
So even if we struggle to believe that Jesus loves us, we allow Him to live in us when we love and reach out to another in "the sincere gift of self".
And in so doing, we become brilliant imitators of His Sacred Heart and most resemble Him.
For we have now experienced Christ’s unconditional, infinite love as the giver and that transforms us, imperceptibly but significantly.
Now that's a class act.
No comments:
Post a Comment