Sometimes words of truth just hit you between the eyes!! Here are some I read today: “ On our best days — and our worst In times both clever — and confused Our life is finally summed up in this:
WE ARE MADE TO LOVE WITHOUT REASON, To breathe in the wide open plain air of wonder, To ponder without asking why, Because in God there is no “why” to be found No reason to be known Beyond the flame of ever whyless LOVE
“Ever whyless love.” Don’t you just love that??!
There it is — the refined essence of what really matters in this life — L.O.V.E.
EVER WHYLESS LOVE.
Those words were written by Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) at a time much like our own, when society seemed to be coming apart at the seams. In the midst of all that chaos, he was able to capture the “love of God, the mystic path and the journey of transformation” — in language so startling that he was often accused of heresy. Though he lived centuries ago, his writings have influenced many of our modern day theologians.
Karl Barth (1886-1968) may have been one of them. Barth’s CHURCH DOGMATICS is one of the LONGEST works of systematic theology ever written. Over 9000 pages, it contains over SIX MILLION WORDS!! As the story goes — once a student asked him if he could summarize his theology in a single sentence. His answer?
“Jesus loves me this I know , for the Bible tells me so …”
So — after 6 million words, it really all boils down to ONE basic word — LOVE.
What is the resurrected Christ calling each of us to do/be in 2023? How can we best embody the LOVE Jesus was talking about?
The challenge is — to become empty enough of our own “stuff” — so that we make room for Love to fill us entirely … so that LOVE becomes what we THINK and what we DO and WHO WE ARE … so that when others encounter us — they are experiencing the DIVINE within us. No need to search the world to find the “thin places” where the veil between Heaven and earth is almost non-existent — because WE have become the thin places…
Using the language of 1 Corinthians 13, composer Hal Hopson (b. 1933) describes this kind of love in his choral anthem THE GIFT OF LOVE. Click here to listen — and as you do, open your spirit and allow the words to sink in and fill up your heart ♥️
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