Facing Down the Long, Still Love of God
We're here today because there are infinitely worse things in life (and eternity) than just sitting around being loved by God.
This post is brought to you by my next door neighbor, who is selling his house and moving in with his middle-aged children. I walked out to the mailbox today, and we waved, like we always do, and I got to thinking about the age most of us will reach, sooner or later, when not much more happens.
Those of us with an interest in evangelization tend (rightly) to think an awful lot about doing things. Outreach, discipleship, preaching, worship, works of mercy, relationship-building . . . so many very important things. Things that matter. Even when we’re contemplative, we’re contemplative in hard-working ways. We discipline our prayer lives, we fast, we offer up sacrifices. We’re so, so very diligent.
And then one day we won’t be. One day we’ll just sit around, maybe not even getting so far as waving to the neighbor. Not only skipping Mass (though we’d go if we could), but maybe even skipping prayer altogether, in any sense of the word that requires concentration or mental effort. There will come a time, for many of us, when we are still living our lives, but we are no longer doing anything. Just hanging around, being alive, and that’s it. Not necessarily in a good mood about it, even.
It’s a mysterious time.
We evangelists today are living immersed in a culture that prizes competence and accomplishment above all else. Even when we’re living humbly, we aim to do so in admirable style.
This culture we’re swimming in dilutes our understanding of the meaning of life. We tend to look for some kind of doing. So-and-so is quite helpless by the world’s standards, we might tell ourselves so piously, but look how he brings a smile to his family! Perfect. Now he’s doing something. We’ve figured out what his usefulness is. That’s his purpose, right?
Not at all.
God loves us. Love doesn’t use the other. Love seeks the good of the other, love cherishes the other, but love does not, ever, reduce us to utility.
(Nothing wrong, by the way, with bringing a smile to your family. Heaven knows it’s no small feat at times, either. More of us ought to give that one a try.)
I write about this because if we are going to evangelize, we need to understand who it is we are speaking to, and what those people are here for. They are here to be loved by God. That is your purpose and my purpose and theirs.
And of course, we respond to that love. Many of us are able to, and thus should, respond to that love in ways that involve doing things. There is tremendous importance in many of the things we do, or should be doing, and of course in all the things we must not do, as well.
An examination of conscience (invaluable, do one today!) helps us to know how well we are loving ourselves, and by extension those around us: Have I cared for myself in a way that honors my dignity as a person made in the image of God? Have I used my many gifts in ways that respect and cherish those around me? Has the love of God animated what I have and have not done today?
It’s good to pay attention to that.
But, because you are far more than the sum of your actions: Have I let myself be loved by God today?
Just sit there doing nothing at all, and let Him love you. It’s good.
Today’s image is a manuscript detail from the 13th century, via Wikimedia, public domain. I searched on “lizard” thinking of the small green ones who spend long hours sunning themselves on the walls of my house. But these fellows popped up in the results, and they needed to be loved by us.
If you’re new to One Soul at a Time and like what you’re reading, here are the details on how to subscribe (it’s free).