LOVE CLAIMS THE BELOVED
The true person of faith does
not want to escape the Hand of God but, rather, to immerse oneself into the
Hand of God.
There is a piece of art sculptured by Auguste
Rodin called The Hand of God. Perhaps you have seen pictures of it or have seen
one of Rodin's many copies of it at an art museum. In this sculpture, an
enormous hand is cupped half closed. Emerging from its palm are a man and woman
both embracing and seeming to struggle.
A famous author tells how he was looking at
this piece with a young lady he had brought to the museum, a girl of college
age. "It is beautiful, isn't it?" the author asked. "No I don't
like it," the girl responded. "If only we could escape that terrible
hand." "But to escape from that Hand would be to escape from
Love," the author replied. "But, maybe I would prefer freedom,"
said the young woman. "But, maybe," the author retorted, "we can
only find freedom and love when we obey the Divine Hand."
A true person of faith wants to "obey the
bronze hand." The true person of faith does not want to escape the Hand of
God but, rather, to immerse oneself into the Hand of God. We, or at least
speaking for myself, I, have a long way to go. So often I am at the level of
doing this or that with the silly notion that I can appease God, as though He
needs my rather meaningless actions. All too often I am more than willing to
say to God, "Take this action, this prayer, this sacrifice, but don't take
me."
But this is precisely what God wants - He
wants me and He wants you. He doesn't just want a piece of us, He wants all of
us. And so we come to today's Gospel reading, "If anyone comes to Me
without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brother and sister,
and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple" (Lk 14:26). Love demands
a total claim upon the Beloved. For those of us who are married, we are so
aware of this. We know that we cannot expect our marriage to grow if we hold
back part of ourselves from the other.
When you first considered how serious of a
relationship you could establish with that girl or guy you felt so attracted
to, you asked yourself, "Is this someone whom I can give myself to? Will
he or she accept me as I am? Can I accept him or her totally as he or she
is?" Indeed, the success of the marriage is directly proportional to the
capability of the couple to enter into intimacy, to their ability to give and
to share with each other. Love claims the Beloved, totally.
As true as this is in every relationship of
love, this truth reaches its perfection in the relationship with the One who is
Love Incarnate - with our Lord and Savior, Jesus. He has given Himself totally
to us. For our relationship with Him to flourish, we have to accept His gift of
Himself and give ourselves totally to Him. Our relationship with the Lord must
supersede all other relationships and it demands following Him and living His
life of sacrifice. "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me
cannot be My disciple" (ibid 27). Jesus also tells us, "...every one
of you who does not renounce his possessions cannot be My disciple" (ibid
33).
There is a song sung by Country artist, Randy
Travis, titled "Point of Light." I'd like to share just a few words
of the song with you: "All it takes is a point of light; a wray of hope;
in the darkest night. If you see what's wrong and try to make it right, you can
be a point of light!" I can remember reading an article that was on the
front page of the Spokesman Review. It was a story about grandparents raising
their grandchildren. Right here in Spokane there are several thousand
grandparents who are forced to raise their grandchildren - people sixty-five
and older are raising children two, three and four years old and up. Think
about that!
One of the biggest problems they face as
grandparents is not just the challenge of their age and health, but the
financial responsibility placed on them as well. Most of them only live on
social security and possibly a small savings. What happens to the children's
parents? Oftentimes, they are struggling with an addiction - drugs or alcohol -
going through a divorce, don't have a job or just don't want the responsibility
of raising their kids. It is sad, but thank God for the grandparents who are
there for these children. They are truly "points of light" and true
disciples of Jesus Christ!
We are called to be in a love relationship
with Jesus. Sometimes we forget this. We treat religion as an obligation rather
than as an action of love. We are in a love relationship with our God. But like
all relationships, we have to work hard for the relationship to succeed. We
have to seek His presence in our faith community, where we have an intimate
relationship with Him through the Sacraments. We have to seek His presence in
our homes where we unite His presence to the intimacy of our family.
Time and time again I have told young couples
the importance of communicating with each other and with God. The best way to
begin this is by praying together! As so many of our retired couples proclaim
with their lives - couples who have been married for forty, fifty, sixty years
- that a successful marriage is the result of praying and looking for new ways to
love. We have to look for new ways to love God and to allow His love to grow in
us.
By placing Jesus at the center of our lives we
are able to see the value of all our relationships, and it's with Him that we
will be able to protect these relationships from anything that would diminish
their intensity. That's why we have to avoid sin and the occasions of sin. Our
Christian morality is not a way of life to keep God happy. He doesn't need
that. He's perfectly happy on His own. However, He invites us to share in His
glory for our own sakes. Our Christian morality is a way of life to keep
ourselves happy. We grow in the intensity of His love when we fight off
anything that hinders this love from growing stronger.
Auguste Rodin's sculpture expresses Jesus' message
in today's Gospel. We are all placed in the Hand of God. We have been claimed
by the Lord. Happiness and love are found by letting Him grasp us!!! Only that
which is within His Hand has any importance at all. All the rest is secondary.
God has made His claim on us. Love claims the Beloved.
God bless you!