Daily reflection _ love claims the beloved

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.  
Deacon John Ruscheinsky
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!