Love hurts, love scars
Love wounds, and marks
I remember that lyric from the group Nazareth. It popped into my thoughts after a profoundly touching homily on Abraham's willing sacrifice of his only son Isaac. Insanity? Today Abraham would be hauled off, imprisoned and put through the hoops of rigorous psychiatric examination. The priest confessed that to our modern ears this story does indeed come across as insane (my words) and bring the nature of a loving God into question. Rather, it's a story of trust and perseverance in ones relationship with God. Of course, the similarity with the sacrifice of His only son Jesus is applicable, though a mortal life was not spared. Trust and perseverance.
Love is not a fluffy cloud nine nor is it an insufferable pit of blackness, me thinks. Love is a process of growth, of growing together, of empathy and shared highs and lows. And for this love to grow there must be trust and a willingness to continue through the lows of human pain and suffering. In the stations of the cross Christ's suffering is graphically revealed. He carries the very thing upon which he shall die, yet asks us to to the same daily. He is not glossing over love, rather pointing out that there will be suffering. Trust in me and trust in the Father, he seems to be saying. Though there will be suffering, i think he means to show us through sharing our human physical and mental suffering that like him, we shall rise above it. We are greater than any suffering that might send us running for comfort and ease. Suffering is unavoidable in human life. Better accept it, learn to deal with it in a noble fashion and know that it will pass: to the meditators out there, you know what i mean as we observe pain rising and falling, shifting and relocating. Like the high times on cloud nine, the black pit of suffering is temporary. All things of this world pass, hence our need for perseverance.
Resolutely Abraham was prepared to do what God had asked him to do, even if it seemed insane. We know, however, that God would have us only do good, to reveal the very nature of our being which is Love. He would have us grow in Love, its joys and wounds, its scars and marks. Suffering shapes us unlike any other human experience. With trust and perseverance in God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost, let us endure and rise to the occasion that calls us to Love God and Love our neighbour and Love even our enemy! Let us not busy ourselves with avoiding suffering, running to and fro in fear. Fear would have us locked in our homes, benumbed in the illusion of safety. Doubt and denial would have us pretend that pain was a thing of the past and no longer applicable to our modern sensibilities and technologies. Suffering will happen. And with God at our side, we shall endure and be better people for it.
Deo gratias.
Love wounds, and marks
I remember that lyric from the group Nazareth. It popped into my thoughts after a profoundly touching homily on Abraham's willing sacrifice of his only son Isaac. Insanity? Today Abraham would be hauled off, imprisoned and put through the hoops of rigorous psychiatric examination. The priest confessed that to our modern ears this story does indeed come across as insane (my words) and bring the nature of a loving God into question. Rather, it's a story of trust and perseverance in ones relationship with God. Of course, the similarity with the sacrifice of His only son Jesus is applicable, though a mortal life was not spared. Trust and perseverance.
Love is not a fluffy cloud nine nor is it an insufferable pit of blackness, me thinks. Love is a process of growth, of growing together, of empathy and shared highs and lows. And for this love to grow there must be trust and a willingness to continue through the lows of human pain and suffering. In the stations of the cross Christ's suffering is graphically revealed. He carries the very thing upon which he shall die, yet asks us to to the same daily. He is not glossing over love, rather pointing out that there will be suffering. Trust in me and trust in the Father, he seems to be saying. Though there will be suffering, i think he means to show us through sharing our human physical and mental suffering that like him, we shall rise above it. We are greater than any suffering that might send us running for comfort and ease. Suffering is unavoidable in human life. Better accept it, learn to deal with it in a noble fashion and know that it will pass: to the meditators out there, you know what i mean as we observe pain rising and falling, shifting and relocating. Like the high times on cloud nine, the black pit of suffering is temporary. All things of this world pass, hence our need for perseverance.
Resolutely Abraham was prepared to do what God had asked him to do, even if it seemed insane. We know, however, that God would have us only do good, to reveal the very nature of our being which is Love. He would have us grow in Love, its joys and wounds, its scars and marks. Suffering shapes us unlike any other human experience. With trust and perseverance in God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost, let us endure and rise to the occasion that calls us to Love God and Love our neighbour and Love even our enemy! Let us not busy ourselves with avoiding suffering, running to and fro in fear. Fear would have us locked in our homes, benumbed in the illusion of safety. Doubt and denial would have us pretend that pain was a thing of the past and no longer applicable to our modern sensibilities and technologies. Suffering will happen. And with God at our side, we shall endure and be better people for it.
Deo gratias.
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