Love of God

LOVE

 

 

All is quiet – just a soft breeze

touches my face.

Sunshine is strong – telling me

spring is on its way.

 Vast sea seems calm – I see

no violent waves.

Sand is motionless – no

wind blowing it in my face.

I do not move – lay quiet

in my big chair.

 Tears come to my eyes – pangs –

desire fills me –

I chock but no sound.

Mystery of yearning – desire overcomes

me – silent – absolute –

nothingness grips me – touches me.

Divine – transcendent one

overwhelms me –

tears are my response.

 Late winter beauty of seashore

 lead me gently to an encounter –

 one of love – mystery.

 On earth, I cannot get further than that –

 I must live in the ecstatic moment –

waiting – some day -  full embrace.

 

Robert Trabold

 

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LOVE OF GOD

 Robert Trabold

             In our journey into contemplative prayer and in our faithfulness to the discipline of silence which enables us to be constant to our daily meditation, we become aware of the love of God for us and the world. This divine love is a great mystery and it takes time on our part to fathom it. God created us and chose us to be human. All during the years of our life on earth, the Lord continues to love us and help us on our long or short existence on earth. It is a challenge on our part to appreciate this and to realize that it answers a deep need. At times, we can feel very alone in our human journey. Things can go wrong causing us to wonder where we are. If we keep in mind that the divine really loves us, we realize that we are not alone in life but that the Lord calls us to an ‘I –Thou’   relationship with him which helps us also love and be attentive to our neighbor. We are no longer separate and alone but in a deep communion with the divine and each other. We have found a home.

            God calls us to this great dignity of being his/her children and so we are able to build bonds with our neighbor. One of the great paradoxes is that we can reject this. We are humans with free will and can reject the vocation to which we are called. We can turn our back and lead an isolated and selfish existence. This comes to play in the many decisions that we make each day, some leading us to deep union with the divine and the neighbor or others which lock us into a selfish stance. One of the great mysteries is that the Lord is always waiting for us to return to the vocation he calls us to. In the gospels, the father was waiting for the prodigal son to return and welcomed him back when he saw him coming home.

            This challenge and vocation to respond to the love of God in our lives carries its risks and can make us vulnerable. We all have experienced that many times we have reached out to people but have been rejected and this can be painful. At this point, we have to remember that Jesus also suffered but in the end, had his Easter Sunday.  In one sense, the sin and evil of the world do not have the ultimate power but the Lord’s love is stronger and will overcome the selfishness and evil happenings in the world.

            When we try to respond to the vocation of love to which we are called, we take a risk. We take this because we have faith that God loves us more than the world which can inflict harm. The Lord gives us the grace to take this risk and so we can be comfortable with our vocation and can relax into what we are called to. It encourages us to be faithful to our schedule of daily meditation and to live our vocation in the world with good actions and standing up for justice and peace in a war torn and violent world. In our daily meditation, no matter how dry it is and full of distractions, we should keep our eyes on the vocation of love with the Lord and one another to which we are called. It is a life’s journey which ultimately has us feel at home in the world and assures us of place in our true home in eternal life.