"John the Evangelist writes, 'God is love, and whoever remains in love, remains in God and God in them' (1 John 4:16). The Judeo-Christian creation story says that we were created in the very 'image and likeness' of God—who sets the highest bar for this kind of outflowing love (Genesis 1:26-27). Out of the Trinity’s generative and infinitely flowing relationship, all of creation takes form, mirroring its Creator in its deepest identity.
"We have heard this phrase so often that we don’t get the existential shock of what 'created in the image and likeness of God' is saying about us. If this is true, then our family of origin is divine. It is saying that we were created by a loving God to also be love in the world."
When we try to BE LOVE, we are lovers searching for the Divine Who dwells in all things. Everywhere we are, we are in the Presence of God. Every part of creation carries God's indwelling Presence, the little light of God within. God waits to greet us, to speak to us. But - how often are we ready to discover God everywhere, to marvel, to be in awe, to be filled with passionate love and joy?! Asking God to enlarge my heart is asking God to enlarge my capacity to find and love God in the most hidden places, the most unlikely faces - to do God reverence there.
But not only does God dwell in us, we also dwell in God. God's life and love literally keeps us alive - as an unborn child is kept alive in the womb of his mother. God holds the entire Universe in God's Womb of Life!
When our hearts are narrow and constricted, we only think about and appreciate the small circle of human beings and places and events that are part of our lives. We think that only our family, friends, places we live, and events in our own lives matter. But this is not true - and it's a dangerous delusion. Albert Einstein said, "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. [One] experiences [oneself] . . . as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of [one’s] consciousness. . . . Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
To BE LOVE is to recognize that God/Love is the Great Connector. The greatest lie, the greatest illusion and delusion afflicting human beings is thinking that we and our "clan" are separate from everyone and everything else. Christians are separate from Jews and Muslims. Whites are separate from Blacks, Browns, Yellows, and Reds. Straights are separate from the LGBTQs. The United States is separate from the rest of the world. Why do you think we call Satan the "Great Separator"? Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said "We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist and forever will recreate each other." If everyone and everything carries the little light of God within, then we are all connected by God, made one by God's Presence, responsible for all the rest.
Yes, all human beings are created in the Image of God. But we don't attain God's Likeness unless we consciously open ourselves to God's little light within, cast off the darkness of our selfishness, our desire to remain separate, and crawl closer to that Light which not only burns brightly in us but is the Light of the world. Nothing can ever ultimately be concealed from God's burning heat of love! God is the Love which removes our blindness and purifies us, the Love which calls to us "You are not separate from anyone or anything! All creation is interconnected!"
Our lives need to be a constant enlarging and softening of our hearts with Love, because otherwise we skate on the surface of life and never enter its depths. An enlarged heart will
- weep over the abortion of a Down's syndrome child AND the destruction of an African lion or elephant in a Trophy hunt......
- weep over our own child's illness AND weep over the child in Liberia who is seven and needs a tumor removed from her spine.
- weep over our mother's dementia AND the willful pollution of soil and water and air by multinational companies.
Until we can weep over every unloving circumstance, our hearts are not enlarged enough, not soft enough. These are holy tears, the tears that impel us to work for compassionate justice because we've seen God's little light everywhere that we turn.
Christ's Body is not just human beings - it is the whole of creation! All was created for Christ, St. Paul says, and all was created through him and with him and he holds all creation together in himself! That means that no one and nothing - NOTHING - is without God's holy Presence, or beyond God's love, care, and concern - and no one and nothing should be beyond ours.
But we "Christians" keep falling back upon the Rules instead of living by the Spirit of the Law. We keep separating people into groups - the Moral and the Immoral, the Legal and the Illegal, the Rulers and the Ruled - even though God says, "Judge not lest ye be judged." And we set these rules up like chain link fences between ourselves and others so we can keep them out and maintain our own Moral Superiority. We use Scripture like a weapon instead of like a Living Fountain of Love. We boldly proclaim the Ten Commandments while we refuse to change the ways that we treat people. We are blind and refuse to see the sinfulness in HATING and not welcoming people who love each other differently than we do, and the sinfulness in DESTROYING our own planet through willfully ignoring climate change, and the sinfulness in treating the unborn, the illegal immigrants, and those on Welfare as LESS THAN HUMAN.
If we REALLY believed that God's little light can be found and reverenced in every human being, and every piece of creation, we would be out searching for God in all the places we haven't found God yet! We'd see God's little light in the eyes of the mentally ill person. The eyes of a drug addict. The eyes of a stray cat. The sharp peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the waves of the Pacific Ocean and the coral reefs and the deserts - all threatened by pollution. Everywhere we'd look, we'd see God there - and know without a doubt that God asks us to love and protect all which God has made, not dominate and subdue either people or nature.
Look into the eyes of that relative who has suddenly told everyone that he is transgender. You may not agree with why he's transitioning, but leave the judging to God - simply look into his eyes and LISTEN. Let him know he's LOVED.
Look into the eyes on t.v. of that illegal alien. Yeah, he's breaking the Rules, but that doesn't make him an invader, but someone to be treated with dignity, whether he can enter the country or not - because where he comes from there are terrible circumstances that none of us can begin to imagine.
Look into the eyes of that Jew on t.v. who just lost loved ones to a horrible death in his Temple - killed just because they were Jews. Do you REALLY think, as some Fundamentalist Christians do, that because he "doesn't accept Christ as his personal Savior" that he and his tribe aren't loved by the God Who called the Jews the First Chosen People? Christ died for all - remember? Some might discover ALL of Who Christ is in Heaven, because surely, if they lead good, loving lives, they will not be rejected by a Good God Who IS Love. After all "God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in them."
God calls us to BE LOVE and to FIND LOVE - God Himself - everywhere. God's Divine, indwelling Presence shines in everyone and everything, everywhere we look when we look with the eyes of Love. Love is who we are because of our Divine Family of Origin, for we are all created in God's Image and Likeness. Love is Light - and the Light shines in the darkness and cannot be extinguished, in spite of sin and tragedy.
Daily, ask God to enlarge your heart so that eventually your Love stretches throughout the Universe. Let Love be your stance, your Way of Life. Then the Love of God will shine in you and through you in a totally unique, irreplaceable and powerful way, as God desires. God's little light of love within you will work little miracles of healing and conversion. God's little light of love within you will renew others' confidence in their own dignity and worth.
Let your little light shine!!!!!