Can love be compared to water? In this sense it can. It is hard to slake our thirst when water arrives in an ‘on and off’ way at our tap. No one thrives when love is not constant. All the evidence suggests that we are the best we can be when there is a steady supply of love flowing into our lives. This is true on a simply human level. It is equally true when we encounter Sacred Love. There is a love which is uniquely revealed by Jesus. We do not have to search for it as if He hadn’t already found us. To this steady stream of love, He adds some simple rules.
Once upon a time there was a king riding in a coach on a rainy day. He sees a poor person dragging themselves through the muddy road and stops and offers them a lift. But the traveller does not have much trust. “What will it cost me?” They ask. “Only that you accept it.” The king replies. Simple rule number one then, is knowing how to receive the love that is on offer. And, yes, there is a catch. Once the offer of love has been accepted a chain reaction is started. The one who is loved can only bring that love to joyful completion by passing it on. We might say we can only fully understand what we have received when we give it
away.
If we could just grasp this simple truth, that we are links in a love chain from the Father to Jesus, from Jesus to us, from us to each other and back again. There is no need to grab, hold or possess love as if it was scarce. His word on love moves us from anxiety to holy communion. If we understand this, we have understood what Jesus is all about. And if we know what Jesus is about, we know what His Father is about. The world of masters and servants collapses and gives way to communities of effortless friendship. In fact, disciples of Jesus have been chosen for this very purpose.
Can we tell ourselves the story that Jesus tells and that he wants us to tell to others? Can we see ourselves as powerful links in this love chain? Sometimes the greatest stumbling block for this is that the teaching of Jesus cannot get past the voices in our heads. You know the ones I mean. The negative self-talk. The tendency to focus on the times when we were hurt. The antidote to this is to think more positively and focus on those who left us treasured memories of love in our hearts.
James Mackey, in his ‘Jesus the Man and the Myth ‘ suggests a way forward. “In the end, the only way to give people the experience …. of being themselves, Grace and treasure is to treat them as treasure and be gracious to them. The sun may indeed rise in the evil and the good, and the same rain refresh the just and the unjust. But the lesson will likely be lost on me unless the warmth of another person envelops me, unless some other human person refreshes the weariness of my defeated days. I will simply not feel my own life, my own self, as Grace or gift of God, unless someone values me.” (p.107)
Mackey’s insight is that every personal experience of authentic love opens a window on our understanding of God’s infinite love. So, we can become sacramental carriers of such love. It does not matter how we enter the love chain. It only matters that we enter in.
