Sacred Heart

     Today is the feast day of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, who had visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, symbol of the great love of God for humanity.

    And I just wanted to echo her message, and the message of Dame Julian (in this blog header) and of so many other mystics, and of St. John the Evangelist: GOD IS LOVE. 

    That's all. God is Love, infinite, unbounded, deep, penetrating, indescribable, inalienable, unconditional Love. God IS Love. God could not stop loving you, or me or any of [His] creatures, even if [He] wanted to, because God IS Love, Love is God's nature. There is nothing that can separate us from God's love. 

    In a discussion of the psalms one day, a very holy old monk suggested that the psalmist exaggerated in saying to God, "your love is better than life." No, I said, no! That is not an exaggeration. Because God's love goes beyond this life. It is the one thing I will never lose, even when I lose my life. I realized that many years ago, one day when I felt like I might actually die of a broken heart -- that even if I did die, I would still have God's love, and how amazing and wonderful is that! My body can go into the ground, I will still be in love with God.

    God does not judge us, reject us, punish us. As Julian says, "there is no wrath in God." God's sacred heart breaks for us, for the harm we cause ourselves and others by our stubbornly bad behavior. God's heart breaks for all our suffering, and holds us through it, whether it's caused by sin or, say, tectonic plates. I know, I have had PTSD, I spent 15 years with untreated depression, I know what it is to suffer. But it was there, at the lowest depth of my pain and hopelessness, that I found God. The Love of God. And from there, the way opened up back into life. In the love of God. In love with God, who is in love with me. And with you! With each creature, as if that one creature were the most precious one in existence. 

    An atheist said to me that he felt like turning to God would be something like an insult to his own humanity, like a cop-out. And I thought, yes, there is a surrender, a humbling, in accepting love, and in accepting that we need love. But I know this man was not too proud to accept his wife's love and companionship, to be vulnerable in loving her. And should a child be too proud to accept a parent's love? So why reject God's love? There is no diminishment in loving and being loved. On the contrary, it expands us, gives us strength, gives us more capacity to live a bigger and happier life. 

    As for me, I choose love ... I choose God, whose love never stops delighting and comforting and inspiring me, day after day. I choose the joy, the hope, the power, the freedom of loving God above anything and everything else. I choose to nail my ego to the cross, and surrender into the Love of my Creator.

    And to all who read this, I wish you LOVE.

🙠🙡🙠 PEACE 🙣🙢🙣