“Where Love Begins” Love and Divinity's Relation
“Where Love Begins”
I constantly marvel at the opportunities that come my way to reflect upon so many things. I am a firm believer in thinking that what we need in life will present itself in some form. So in recent days, I have had many opportunities to reflect upon family, friends, society, our beautiful world and, indeed, the miracle of this great Universe! It has been without a doubt the most difficult year of my life. Illness, death, changes all take their toll and yes throw you into a state of deep reflection and at this moment in time, I find myself wondering what has happened to us as human beings? Where did compassion and caring for one other go? What has happened to our ability hear the call to heal the world? Why does it seem that there a greater need for us to explore our relation to the Divine and the power of God’s presence in and through one another? What are we forgetting? I stand in awe of those who have the courage, in their circumstances, to see right to the heart of the matter and recognize that what we need is something so simple and yet so complex. Yes, I admire those who can say we need love. Why are we reminding each other or asking the people of the world to bring back love? What is happening in the world that makes it necessary to bring attention to this cry.
Every time I ponder a question such as this, I am reminded of a pillar of faith in this community, Mr. Frank Power, God rest his soul for he is now with the Communion of Saints. When Mr. Frank would get annoyed with me, as he often did, I would say, “Don’t worry Mr. Frank, the Spirit is on my shoulder.” And of course, in his wisdom, Mr. Frank would reply, “Yes, Rosalind, But you have to be careful what spirit.” And he was most definitely right for I was soon to discover that there were indeed many spirits. All we have to do is listen to the news headlines to see them in action in the world: a spirit of greed, injustice, discrimination, jealousy, prejudice, corruption, hatred. Look around our communities to recognize a spirit of manipulation, intimidation, ignorance, addiction, anger, rejection, exclusion. Look inside ourselves to find a spirit of shame, guilt, envy, fear, and inferiority or superiority and even hate. The list is endless. So it becomes important in our lives and the life of our communities, and the world to be able to discern the spirit of truth, the life-giving spirit, the presence of God. I am reminded of a well-known, beautiful story called the Lion King. This story, like most animated films, is for me, perhaps one of the most insightful stories ever done about life, love, death, truth, and spirituality.
We are introduced to the story with an amazing fanfare of music as all the animals of the plains come to the dedication ceremony of Simba, a baby lion and future King of his land, known as Pride Rock. The animals gather and chills are sent up my spine as each and every animal, one by one, a bow on bended knee as Simba’s Father, Mufasa, raises their future king to the heavens for all to see. Now the gist of the story is quite simple. Mufasa takes his son, Simba, to the highest point of Pride Rock and shows him the kingdom. Then he says to his son, “All that the light shines on is ours. But you must never go beyond that light where the darkness dwells.” Well, we know the curiosity of the young and Simba is no different. Off he goes to the forbidden land, the Elephant Graveyard. What he did not know was that this land was run by scavengers, hyenas, and the like. Of course, there is big trouble and Mufasa, Simba’s Father comes to the rescue and brings Simba home. What we find out next is that Simba’s uncle, Scar, Mufasa’a brother, is jealous of his brother and wants him dead so he can become King of the Beasts and Pride Rock. Somehow, Scar tricks Simba and lures him to a place of great danger, trusting fully that his father will come once again and rescue him. Of course, Mufasa does, what father wouldn’t, and consequently is killed. Scar then convinces Simba that his father’s death is his fault; that he is responsible for Mufasa’s death and encourages him to run away in shame. The last thing Scar want is to have Mufasa’s heir to interfere wih his becoming King of Pride Rock. So believing the lie, Simba is filled with grief and guilt and does indeed run away, away from his mother, family, friends, his homeland, his destiny. We find Simba much later with some new friends enjoying himself, until one day he meets a lion friend from home and he hears news of home. The scar is now King of Pride Rock, the land is ravaged, barren, and over run with hyenas, and Simba is devastated. He begins to think about home and all that was to be, and out of the starlit night sky comes an image of his Father, and he hears these words, “You have forgotten who you are.” Somehow, from deep within, Simba is reminded that he is the Son of the King and the Future King of Pride Rock. He had been tricked but now he is ready to go back and claim his rightful place as King, Son of Mufasa !!!! Now, what does that story have to do with us? How does this become a living word for us? Well, I think we are just like Simba. We have forgotten who we are. We too are all part of this marvelous Universe, yet somehow we too have been lured away from that part of the Kingdom that the light shines on.
I believe this endearing story presents us with the perfect picture of real love.
First of all, Simba came to know, accept and love himself. Through his suffering, he came to know what self-love really is. It is not a love that feeds the ego or demands things from others to please personal wants and needs. It is a love that recognizes the dignity of self and that of every person. It is a love that serves others in beautiful ways, in all ways possible as the need arises. It is a love that knows the value of another human being and indeed all life.
Then we realize what true sacrifice is. We see Mufasa giving his life to save his son. What a selfless image of sacrifice! Mufasa, gave his all, his very life to save the life of his son and he did it without hesitation.
The next of kin to sacrifice is service and we see Simba, having learned, having matured, returning home to Pride Rock to serve his family, his friends, his community and the whole animal kingdom. His actions have new meaning and we wonder what has changed. I think the answer is a simple one. Simba went on about his business after he had run away from his home and his responsibility as the son of a King. But something, someone, stirred up the memories of home and once again he got in touch with who he was. We too, need to be reminded of who we are. This beautiful gift of love has always been available to us. But something needs to be stirred up inside us. It is like having a cup of tea. You add sugar but do not stir. The sugar sinks to the bottom and the tea is bland, it has no sweetness. But if you stir the tea the sugar too is stirred up to fill the tea with a sweetness like no other. The tea then becomes something good to drink and you feel good drinking it. Now, we ask, how do we stir up the gift of love in our lives? How do we renew this gift that was given to us? The story of the Wedding at Cana as told in the Gospel stories in Christian scripture is a powerful story. But what strikes me is not the wedding or even the miracle that happened there. It is the jars that were standing against the wall. It was those jars that Jesus asked to have filled with water. It was those jars that Jesus touched and changed what was inside. Somehow through the mystery of this miracle, we become those jars just waiting to be touched by the hand of love. Somehow through the mystery of this miracle, we too are changed by a touch of love. It is such a powerful image for me. This is how I see it. Once we have had a true encounter with another human being, once another has touched our lives, one way or another, the stirring of the love inside has to happen and something changes in us forever. A reminder of this is found in Isaiah 62 where God says, “I will change your name. You shall no longer be called, wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid. I will change your name, your new name shall be confidence, faithfulness, a friend of God, one who seeks my Face.” What a promise! A friend of God. If we allow ourselves to accept, renew, and stir up that gift of love then our names will be changed. And so we will be changed. Now, will everything be hunky dory? Of course not! When Simba found the courage to return home he faced a wasteland, filled with hyenas, and other scavengers, the land was barren so there was no food, and his fellow lions had broken spirits. But did that stop him? Of course not. His name had been changed now. He was King! So he was changed! And so he had to restore his kingdom So too it is with us. By the very nature of our being, as part of this universe, we too are called to restore the Kingdom, to restore the planet, all that the light shines on. We are called out of the darkness and even though we may be afraid because courage is doing something even though you may be afraid, we are called to ease the pain and suffering of others, doing what needs to be done for the sake of the Kingdom. That was the mission of the prophets through the ages and it remains our mission today as told in Isaiah 61 and spoken by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, set prisoners free, give liberty to captives, to proclaim a year of favor, and that is why we need to be filled anew. This is not an easy job but we do it with love, compassion, humility, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, accepting and protecting the dignity of every living soul There’s a beautiful song by the great John Michael Talbot called Lady Poverty and a line in that song says, “Lady Poverty enter my door, give me the riches of my Lord.” If love, compassion, humility, kindness, forgiveness, and mercy are the riches of our Lord, then they have to be our riches as well. Using these riches we are to fulfill the scriptures and do what those in the Catholic Church call performing the corporal works of mercy. As a little girl, I did not fully understand the term “Corporal Works of Mercy” but I knew what I had to do. Simply put, to look after those in need, whatever the need is. We need to surrender to this spiritual transformation, allow it to take place in us so that we really care for all people so that we care enough to move into action, informed action as a response to needs that we see and recognize as a real need. Yes, we have a choice to allow this to happen or not. In the Gospel of Mark 1:40-45 a leper approaches Jesus and says, “If you choose you can make me clean.” Jesus chose to make the leper clean and touched him thus making himself part of the marginalized. In those days many were not allowed inside city walls, they were outcasts. Those inside the walls were afraid of the disease, or anything they did not understand. Is this so different from today? If doing what is right makes us part of the marginalized then so be it. If it is good enough for Jesus then it is good enough for me! May we have the courage to stand on the side of those in need, and may God’s Spirit strengthen us to do what Jesus did! We, like Simba, have a Kingdom to restore. Is it easy? Absolutely not. Will there still be trouble? I certainly think so. Will everything be right and easy in our lives? I doubt it. Will there still be suffering? I guarantee it! But do we stop? Of course not because something is different in our lives, something is different in our hearts, because once again love has been stirred up in us allowing us to stand amid the chaos and not be consumed by the darkness that surrounds us. It is so easy to give up, give in, to despair. Believe me, I have been there…more than once !!! But in our aspiring to be a more sacred being, we shed the old ways of thinking, of seeing things, of doing things, of answering God’s call! I love a part of the story from Moby Dick, by Herman Melville….it says“For all this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti – full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all of the horrors of the half-lived life.” This inner Tahiti, this peace, and joy, is God’s Grace alive and well in us because we have said “Yes” to the love of God. For the most part, we live a half-lived life but with the awakening or stirring up of this great love we can have life promised by Jesus in John’s Gospel …”I have come so that you may have abundant life or life to the fullest.” Like Simba, we have been lied to, accused, betrayed, sent into exile, full of fear, afraid to return, afraid to go home, afraid to do this or that because of what people may say about us. We need to be able to say, “I am at peace, I know who I am, I have been to Tahiti. I have been renewed the power of love. Yes, I know who I am and I am worthy of God’s love, freely given, so I may freely receive !!!!
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