Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Love. Love. Love. Sometimes it seems to me that’s one of the most common words I hear. “I love that song.” “I just absolutely LOVE lasagna.” “Love the color of your hair.” Or your shirt. Or your car. Or this weather. Or…or…or…fill in the blanks. After a while, I start wondering, “What do you mean by LOVE?” Is loving lasagna (however tasty) the same as loving your little brother? Or your spouse? Is it the same as loving your favorite pet? Truth in advertising, I have caught myself saying that I love some THING. But then I wonder if that trivializes LOVE. Yes, I am fond of lasagna, but if the restaurant was all out when I go to order, you wouldn’t see tears in my eyes. And I probably wouldn’t remember it for years into the future. If my spouse or a family member disappeared, though, that would be a much deeper thing!
What about being in love? How different is that? If we’re talking about it within the framework of a committed relationship, what happens when you’ve spent years together and no longer feel the heady excitement of being in love? Is there a difference between being in love and the long, solid, steady foundation of love in a relationship?
What about loving God? Even more challenging to get our minds around, what about God loving us humans so much God would become incarnate, even knowing that we would crucify him?
The Monday evening book group is reading C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. The protagonist is a demon, assigned to mentor young tempter-demons. Over and over, he scoffs at the idea of God loving “those creatures,” those “hairy bi-peds”. Many of us have experienced love and many of us have experienced being in love. But pondering
God’s love is an entirely different thing, almost impossible to imagine or comprehend. Lewis’s imp refers to it as the utterly preposterous “disinterested love”.
I’ve been turning this over in my mind and have come to the conclusion that the love of God is purely and utterly gift. There are no strings. No pay back. No quid pro quo. It is the most powerful thing in the world, because nothing can be done to obtain it and nothing can be done to destroy it. There is nothing any of us can do to make God stop loving us. We can reject it, and I believe that saddens God greatly, but that has no impact on the fact of God continuously loving us all.
I hope that we hairy bi-peds receive that love with wonder and awe, and then mirror what we can of it to the other creatures around us.
Keep loving!
Mo. Laura+
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COMING UP!
- July 6-10: Ellie Escher’s Music Camp I
- August 10-14: Ellie Escher’s Music Camp II
- Mondays, Book Study via zoom at 7:00 p.m.: next group starts June 1 C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters
- 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, Girl Scouts, Parish Hall, 6:00-7:30
- Wednesdays, noonday prayer via zoom at 12:00
- Wednesday evenings, yoga class at 6:00 (discount for St. M members)
- Saturdays, Iglesia Luz de Esperanza, 9:00-3:00