I often
wonder at the way in which my mind tries to focus on these types of love, especially
when it comes to the Divine love of the Holy Trinity for the world, and for me
in particular. The infinite nature of
this love literally expands my mind, for the mind cannot focus upon eternity or
infinity as it does upon a basic truth like 2+2=4; or the qualities of an
apple. Epistemologically, when we think
about some thing, a created object like an apple, we literally lift that object
up to a greater level than it has in itself.
We see beyond the particular object into the realm of the idea of apples
or oranges or even mathematics. Our
minds, as part of our spirit, so to speak, are greater than other created
realities, and therefore we actually “make” them better than they are by
pondering them. We can even manipulate them in a way with the
creative faculty of the mind. An apple
becomes a symbol of love, or temptation, or a reminder of mom’s apple pie. We apply mathematics to objects and create a
wheel, a wagon, or an ipod (I say we generically; I’ve never created anything
like that).
Yet,
when we ponder God, it is our minds that get lifted up and beyond
themselves. It is as if our heads are
open on top and then raised above the focused place of our crania. The danger of idols is that they are
tangible, moveable, and makeable. God
cannot be touched in Himself, or moved, or made in our image or any other
image. His infinite nature is so far
beyond our ability to quantify or qualify.
Even His attributes (mercy, goodness, omnipotence, etc.) are infinite
and really are attempts made by the mind to grasp the ungraspable in the forms
of words and ideas. We will literally
spend eternity contemplating the eternal and infinite attributes of the Eternal
and Infinite One. There is no end to how
far our minds can go in pondering Him in His essence.
As with
His other qualities, so with His love, His infinite Love. It is an endless expanse of infinite Being,
and we will never be able to deconstruct It or make it compact enough to fit
into our heads.
Yet
this infinite love is present in the Heart of Christ, for His Heart is really
HIS Heart, the Heart of His Divine Person as Son. We cannot focus or grasp or localize this
Love; but God can, and does. This is the
nature of His infinitude. Think of God’s
infinity as beyond measure. That means
there is nothing capable of encompassing that love; no created being can fully
put his arms around it. Yet, neither is
there anything so small that it can keep that love out. Even light photons are too large to detect
the center of an atom. That’s why we
need electron microscopes at the subatomic level. Yet God is there in His infinite(read:
without bound) Love. No problem is so
vast and of such a magnitude that God does not surround that problem with His
love. No problem is so small that it
escapes His notice or divine concern. So
God makes His love graspable in the Heart of Christ. Man cannot lift his mind to see God, so God
made Himself man so that He could be seen, and touched, and known.
Christ
as a real man, a human being like us in all things but sin, has a human mind
and a human will. While on earth, He
made choices that were deliberate and thoughtful and direct, all with an eye
towards the reason for His coming here in the first place: to show God’s love to those around Him; to make choices that were acts of love for
His Father in heaven, and for us, generally and individually. The greatest choice was His decision to enter
into the Passion. “Not my will, but
Thine be done!” It was a deliberate
choice, an act of love to put His life on the line in place of us. And what it cost Him was the essence of His
act as sacrifice. He gave Himself over
to that awful suffering and death in a conscious act to substitute His death
for mine, and yours. It hurt. A lot; which makes it an act of heroic love,
for the easy path is often a mere matter of sloth or gravity. Every step towards the cross was an act of
manly love for His bride, the Church.
His Sacred Heart beat harder and harder as His body endured the agony
and passion of His final hours, and each beat was like a reminder in His own
ears of the “why” of His sacrifice. “For
THEM…for THEM….for THEM!”
These
are matters that theologians and psychologists and story tellers can describe,
and it makes for a good study. Even the
demons know all of this. An atheist
could describe the Passion of Christ as a piece of good literature, and possibly
the actions of a good man railroaded by others and his own self-delusion into a
tragic scene of heroics in the midst of violence.
But no
demon, and no unbeliever, will ever grasp that third element of the Heart of
Christ that is truly essential to living a Christian life: He has affection for us. He feels for us as a brother, a friend, a
companion; even as a mother (“like a hen gathering her brood beneath her wings”). He is empathetic towards us, even now while
enjoying the bliss of heaven. His heart
still beats for us. He likes us, even
unbelievers and sinners and the wayward.
I don’t think He likes the demons, though, and that’s what drives them
madder than anything else. They know He
loves them still for He made them, but He doesn’t like them. The affection of Christ is not
affectation. He doesn’t pretend to like
us so that we will like or love Him back.
It is an entirely free gift of care and delight in us. It is a human affection that drew the work
hardened apostles to leave everything and follow Him. It is the compassion that inspired so many to
reach for Him even just to touch the tassel of His cloak, to ask for healing,
to seek deliverance and peace and calm.
The
powerful impact of the life and mission of Jesus Christ is obviously part of
the Divine Plan for the human race, and God’s choice to send His Son to redeem
the world, but an element that must not be lost is that He lived a real human
life among other human beings, and He liked them and cared for them. They were attracted to Him because they
learned to feel that love from His Person.
Preaching and proclaiming the fundamental truths of the Gospel are
essential to the success of the Church from day one, inspired and guided by the
Holy Spirit. It was the radiant and
radiating affectionate love of Jesus the Man felt by the apostles, and then
expressed and channeled by them, that brought them in and kept them there. His words and actions had power because He is
God. They had their opening into the
souls of men and women because He cared for them and got them to feel it.
We can
philosophize about divine love, and we can explain how God can exist in logical
proof. We can describe the events of the
life of Christ and make Him a study of serious scholarship. We cannot always sense the love He has for
us, but that makes it no less real or present.
It takes an act of faith, especially in dark and painful moments, but it
is worth the effort to ponder and focus on that affection. We may not feel better afterwards, but often
do. Gazing upon His open, pierced Heart
should be a moment of intimacy with Him, our Savior, our Redeemer, our best
Friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment