To Love Him Completely

 We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But, how can we love the Father so completely? In my mind, I picture an oil lamp burning like an angel before God’s throne.

First, it seems that this calls for humility.  We have to see that He is our ‘other’–our beginning, our Creator. We have to see that we are helpless on our own-very difficult in this society of independence and achievement-that we can’t do anything without Him, and that there is no other who can help us in this way. We need wisdom and understanding to come to conclusions in a different way. “How can I help?”…instead of judging others. Who am I? Who am I not? Christ was able to love His Father completely because He had wisdom to know His place. Wisdom and humility are tied together.

Second, we must have temperance and fortitude. Self-control is crucial if we are going to love completely because we will be tempted to replace emptiness with other people or other things like money or shopping or drugs or alcohol. It seems counterintuitive to say that we would be tempted to fill emptiness when we are loving completely, but this kind of complete giving of ourselves is different than what we are used to, and, at first, we might feel a perceived emptiness and be tempted. Strength is needed to keep our focus on Him. Yes, this choice might make us happy, but for how long?  To what extent and at what cost? Pleasure or what we want cannot always be our goal. Love must be. Love is worth more than a fleeting, right now kind of happiness. It lasts longer and is a greater good. Now, to clarify, it’s not that God doesn’t want us to be happy, but He wants to be the center of our lives, our love. By filling ourselves with Him, our joy can be complete.

We must also have fortitude to sacrifice and to suffer as we are asked to. Love cannot exist without sacrifice or suffering. Otherwise, we would remain ourselves never offering or giving of ourselves–we would each remain the singular “I.” To live for God is to live for others. This is justice and charity… love in action. We should always work for the greater good and strive to show others love. If we see others as a gift, this is easier. To love in this way is come outside ourselves while we are also looking within. We must be working towards clean hearts, minds, and souls while we are striving to get closer to God.

Third, faith and hope are necessary, too, because our love relationship with the Father is less tangible than the human relationship. And, things will not always go our way, to say the least. Sometimes, we have to grow into love. Do not lose heart if you are suffering or going through tough times. I think this means that the Father loves us enough to work in us, so He can work through us. (Could suffering mean being loved more?!)

Finally, I think that to love our Father with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is to prayerfully, humbly, and purposefully allow Him into our being to be our source…like oil in a lamp, so that we can become imbued with His love and to desire nothing more than to burn for Him.

Journey to the Center of the Father's Heart

Sometimes we have to be careful what we pray for. If we pray to come closer to or be drawn into the Heart of our Father or desire more meaning in our lives, He will do it. The thing is that we don't fully know what it takes, what that means. Although, we are all different and have different paths, coming closer to the Father involves surrender, choosing the good no matter what the cost or what we want, and saying no to sinful habits or inclinations. In other words, there will be a letting go and a releasing of what we held onto, both of which can be painful and humbling.

If we want to get to the Father, we follow the Son down the Via Dolorosa to the Cross. He not only made it possible for us to connect to the Father, but Christ also shows us how, through selfless, loving obedience we can get there.  Christ also shows us that it is worth it. He overcame death and, with his help and love, we can overcome sin, fear, and addiction… anything that is killing our relationships with others, with God, and ourselves; however, it takes the work of our entire being and being consumed with the fire of God's love.

Imagine for a moment that you are a space shuttle and that Earth is the Father's heart. You've chosen to leave or work on your own (for a moment, for a day, for years), so you've been out in space for some time. There the rules are different; you seem freer because there's no gravity to hold you down. But all the supposed freedom has gotten you off course. What is important has been blurred by space dust and you're tired of trying to do it on your own.

Like a good father, our Father never leaves or forgets us, so while in orbit, there is always a connection to His love. We are constantly being invited to come home. So, we've decided to go for it and Father at Mission Control guides us with the procedures to re-enter life with Him. This cannot be done without His guidance, without His love. So He gives us help. He gives us a flight crew, people who have been there before, to help us, and He sends us his Holy Spirit.

As a space shuttle since we've been in space for a while we've been flying upside down, nose first so we have to be pitched the right direction. Leftover fuel (selfish desires, whatever got us away in the first place, perhaps) has to be burned away because the extra heat could ignite an unwanted fire. Because the heat of returning to His heart will be intense, His Holy Spirit will be there for protection as insulation.

With everything in place, the descent begins… the return journey commences, and it is a journey that must be committed to because it will not be easy. At times it will seem like we will explode. But this fire is necessary because we are getting closer to the Divine and the fire purifies us. There will be times of silence because of the heat. It may seem that our Father has left us, but the Holy Spirit is there steering us on the right path. We have not been abandoned into the fire. Just when we think we are completely lost, our Father communicates with us again, reassuring us that we are not alone in this. We will hit walls…limits towards love that we have placed on ourselves, sins, or old wounds that have to be faced…because of the friction caused by the heat. Even the smallest speck of dust (for us, temptations or self-destructive thoughts) could knock us off our trajectory. This is why it is so important to stay on track, to be led by the Holy Spirit, and to be assisted by the flight crew. It may even seem easier to give up or go back, thinking, “Maybe we can land another day,” because the contrast of what we feel seems so much harder than when we weren’t feeling.

Yet, if we stay the course and surrender ourselves… our control… to the Father, one day, we will be guided to healing through steep angles and slowed down enough to land safely on the ground…right into our Father's heart. There we will be welcomed and celebrated among cheers because we who were once lost have now been found. We will be embraced by His immense love, and although weary, be filled with joy and renewed when He says, “Welcome home, my child, I've been waiting for you. Come, refresh yourself, for now I need your help getting others back.”

Beauty from Ashes

In light of recent tragedy, one thinks that it doesn’t seem fair or comprehensible  that so many innocent children would be allowed to die. Yet, it happened. It happens. Connecticut was not the first place or only place that lost innocence. But, it does beg the question, how can we find the Father’s love in such situations? If we listen carefully, we can hear Him speaking.

Through such actions, He tells us that we need Him. If we don’t allow His love in, don’t allow Him to love us, sin can overshadow our attempts at doing good. Selfish and irrational thinking can overwhelm our hearts that are so empty that they are starving for love. Instead of reaching for love, distorted minds grasp for what would seem to end the emptiness…causing others pain, perhaps. Through these actions, our Father is saying, “I know you and your pain; free yourself in my love.”

In the parents dropping everything to come after their children and embracing their children once found, our Father shows Himself. He is also there through the efforts of the first responders and police officers trying to do all in the their power to save, console, and pull the clues together. People throughout the world, in tears, praying for and wanting to comfort those in pain…these are all examples of the Father’s love.

Our Father’s love comes through the awesome, mysterious reality of free will that He offers us. We underestimate the power of this gift. It’s so difficult to understand. It’s mindblowing. Our Father loves us so much that He allows us to choose freely…Him or not. Evil or love. Freedom or chains. Perhaps, the question is not, “Why would God let this happen?” but, “Why would someone not choose love?” Either way, God’s love prevails. Even in such incomprehensible evil, God’s love wins in the end. Our Father’s sadness and misunderstanding and disgust with evil is taken away only because He is allowed to wrap His arms around His children without a world in the way as He welcomes them into His Kingdom. He can finally be with them forever and shower His love on them. This, too, is difficult to understand because we think that they would be happier here on earth, certainly, their parents would be. Father tells us that evil exists, but love, His love prevails all the more and only He can bring beauty from ashes in ways we cannot foretell. 

Finally, I think there is a lesson here for each of us…at least for me. It seems that it takes these kinds of horrible events to look at each other and love and appreciate each other because life is so delicate. The truth is that life is always delicate. Why do we sometimes wait for disasters, deaths, or tragedies to spend more time hugging our children, calling loved ones, or bringing over a meal to our neighbor’s house? Maybe our Father is telling us that this is how we should always love each other. The love and compassion that comes out at these times is what we are meant to show, the gift that we are called to be to everyone we come in contact with everyday. In loving others with His love always, then maybe we can somehow help prevent our brothers and sisters from feeling unloved and wanting to choose such violent, evil ways to express themselves.