On Love

Love. Brotherly love, unconditional, loving-kindness, not lustful, not self-centered, as God is and the Son revealed in his suffering, death and resurrection and the love we can aspire to through the Holy Ghost, St. John's message is clear. After reading today's Gospel at mass, the priest said that he was slightly disappointed each year that after hearing how simple a true life is, namely a life lived in love, that not a single person jumped up with a cry of joy, "I get it!". True compassion, loving-kindness without Self motivations, metta in Buddhism, is not something merely to be understood. It must be done. Practiced. It must be at the forefront of ones every thought and action, lived, breathed and so made One. Despite our cultural conditioning, we must turn the other cheek and forgive, as we are taught by Christ. Impossible! Crazy! Yes, and they will attack and humiliate you, they will try to hold you down, prove that it cannot be real, just as Jesus warned. But, just as God is love, so we too are love, created in his image. Release the undesirable baggage of hate and suspicion. Love is the Prodigal Son welcomed home. Be love. Only then can we know freedom and joy. Only then can we see God. Only then can we truly be alive. "All you need is love", sing the Beatles. Lord, let me be blind, deaf and dumb to the temporal world that I may be born anew, freed from fear so that I may love. May all that I do, all I am, be a prayer of thanks to Love for all to witness, an inspiration for all to relax, slow down, take some time before acting thoughtlessly, and become that which we are, I am, One in Love. Deo gracias.