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Love language 2Sunday, February 25, 2018
From Genesis 22 I am a "person." That word "person" has deep roots. Originally the Greek word "persona" meant mask, and Richard Rohr says it "seems to indicate that the individual manifestation is no more than a mask of a larger reality." Theologians, philosophers and psychologists adopted this word to describe our individual uniqueness. We can "see each person as a mask of God. God breathes and sounds through each person, who is one image of a much larger truth." One way of understanding Jesus is that he took human flesh to show us not just HOW to love, but that we ARE love, like God. We are made in his image and likeness. We BE love. "All love is a living out of that being, a being that precedes and perfects all doing." I carry my love as part of the community. I am a fragment of the Whole. So my life bears fruit only as I love out of "the truth of the whole." I think that sounds a little more complicated than it is. Jesus calls us branches of the vine. Paul talks about our gifts working together like a physical body. The author of Hebrews says we must "spur one another on." These pictures don't show ways of being dutiful but ways of loving: God loves me, then I love you. This is the way we are meant to live. Solidarity goes beyond politics. Compassion goes beyond psychology. This is how we BE love.This is where joy comes from. I AM before I DO anything. If I focus too much on what I do, I'll notice my failing or my success and get caught in shame or pride. Circling endlessly in ruminations about myself, I turn away from God rather than toward him. We are both mirror (nothing) and mask (everything). We come to understand this in what Rohr calls "the quiet and immense joy of contemplative prayer." And he concludes, "The journey into our nothingness is called faith. The journey into everything is called love. From this place of truth we can speak to and serve the world as the mirrors and masks of God." Lord, show my mind the language of your heart. Open my mouth to say, "Yes," and "I love you," and "Thank you." These are words of life between us. Teach me to accept what you say, adapt what I do, and appreciate your sweet touch in me. |
There is more to loving than reflecting back what you see and hear (see yesterday's "Love Language 1"). God's idea for us is the same as his idea for snowflakes: we have a lot in common, but we each receive our own set of gifts. And our gifts are meant to be shared in love with the community.