A bishop visited a church in his diocese. Only three people turned up to hear him preach. He asked the Vicar, "Did you give notice of my visit?".
"No" replied the vicar, "but word seems to have got round anyway".
Ironically this anecdote reflects our treatment of Christ whom the bishop represents. So many have excluded Jesus from their lives and they are much sadder for it.
If you want an exciting life, and who doesn't, you can choose love. It works like this: you can smile and enjoy the moment, or you can be angry with your brother or sister. Heaven begins here on earth.
Love is a foretaste of heaven. God has given us the joy of love in this physical, emotional and spiritual world. Falling in love is a wonderful experience. Just sharing a glance is sublime. A smile, a touch, causes a tender response. Whispers are promises and the world is full of excitement.
Love is communicated in gentleness and wonder. Vows give assurance of permanence. Again, we can choose love. Love can be filial or familial; agape, which is openness to all; or erotic, which is sensual. Love is God's gift to us.
God has gifted us with a capacity to love. Humans have desires and longings which are a blueprint for finding love. Seeking fulfilment leads us, like it led Adam, to find one about whom we can say: "This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh!" (Genesis 2:23).
Grace leads us all, and some more specifically, to find the same joy in a Divine relationship where God is the fulfilment of the heart and the soul's desire. God is love.
The experience of God's love keeps us moving forward in faith (2 Corinthians 5:14). Spending time in the presence of Jesus, whether you find him sacramentally in the Church or in the pure joy of God's gift of nature, results in awe.
Our spiritual life has so much potential for development. Charles Schultz said, "Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use." How true about our spirituality.
George Eliot said, "It is never too late to be what you might have been." To apply that to our spiritual potential, ponder this analogy:
Imagine being born blind and living into adulthood without ever having seen light and color. Then, through some miraculous operation, doctors are able to give you sight. What would you feel immediately upon opening your eyes? Wonder? Bewilderment? Ecstasy? Pain? Some combination of all of these? (from "Purgatory as Seeing Fully for the First Time" by Ron Rolheiser.)
Ron points out that according to J.Z. Young, an authority on brain function, "The patient on opening his eyesfinds the experience painful. He reports only a spinning mass of light and colors. He proves to be quite unable to pick up objects by sightor to name them. He has no conception of space with objects in it."
His brain has not been trained in the rules of seeing. It takes years of growth to accommodate these experiences. Our spiritual development is similar. The experience of God as love would blind us if it happened in an instant.
Let us start falling in love with God in a natural way. A glance, a smile, even a touch will warm our hearts. Prayerful whispers, even promises are first steps. Heaven begins on earth as we experience love of God and others.
