THE LOOK OF LOVE

KEVIN BATES SM

On this holy mountain the Lord will prepare for all people a banquet of rich foods and fine strained wines - he will take away the mourning veil covering all peoples and will destroy death for ever......and so it goes.

Just to stop and muse for a moment on what the love of God is a bit like, is to be caught up into a world that hardly seems real. How could there possibly be a love with no strings attached, with no expectations, with no demands, with no conditions - in a world where conditions, strings, expectations, demands are the normal and expected currency?!

According to our deep scriptural tradition, all the way from Isaiah through to the wonderful parables in Matthew and Luke, we meet with a God of radical hospitality and unconditional love. 

This love sets no conditions,

            - is not based on rights and obligations,

            - is not constrained by any other force- - fear of rejection or ridicule,

            - but is pure gift,

born of profound acceptance and respect.  Pure gift - not earned, bought or bargained for - just simply given.

It is this love alone that can change hearts.  Our poets and song-writers and philosophers have been telling us that for aeons, but we fail to hear and believe.

             “All you need is love” - John Lennon

            “The only soil in which the human heart can grow is one of love” Sigmund Freud

            “In the end only kindness matters” - Jewel

            “I believe in love surviving death into eternity”  - Savage Garden

            “God is love” - St John

            “Love, love changes everything.” - Andrew Lloyd Webber

It is love alone that will bring a conversion sufficient enough to make a different world emerge.  Fear may bring a certain conformity.  “Behave yourself” - the cry that often means “you don’t fit into my world-view and I insist you do fit in” - may bring a certain modification of behaviour on the surface, but will never lead to a deeper modification of values and attitudes.  People modify behaviours often enough in order to survive, not in order to live!

Love does not wait for the right conditions in order to swing into action.  In times of joy, suffering, doubt, war, drought, - in all our times where things are at best incomplete, love simply is.

Love does not wait to be invited in, but rather is already present within and among us if we only dare step back and recognise that she is there.  Love does not wait to be invited in, but simply waits for us to know and welcome her.

Love does not  expect to given applause or recognition before offering her gift - there is no need for love’s ego to be fed or satisfied, for love takes no account of her own needs.

Love simply is.

This gift is available to us at each moment of our journey.  God’s gracious tender unconditional love is our heritage - and yet so much of our energy is spent on our suffering, pain and needs that we so easily miss seeing or tasting this gift.

This gift is ours to offer to each other and to all who cross our path.  It belongs to everyone.  Everyone has a claim on this love.  No one is excluded from it - no one.......and yet....

Our world is awash with the poor, the lonely, the desperate, the rejected, the addicted, the powerful seeking their own ends, just as much as ever.  This gift of love has been available to us since time began and yet we still cannot believe that it is a possibility for us.

People feel rejected by governments, churches, families, partners.  People are denied their basic rights - in fact most people in the world are denied their basic rights by virtue of the wealth that is locked up in investments and share markets.  People are denied access this love by religious rules that exclude, that lack the compassion and flexibility to deal with people’s reality.  People are denied access to this love by the small print which says “Conditions apply”!

We say to them “we don’t know you”,

            “You don’t fit into our world view, or our religious, political or cultural perspective”

            “To save ourselves dealing with you we will give you a number instead of a name”;

“We will give you a label instead of a face so we don’t have to deal with or engage with you - you are simply too much trouble.”

What we are often really saying is that “we are too self-absorbed or too frighted to engage with you as love - if we dare let it loose, may call us to change, to let go, to move to places where we have not dared go before.”

And love simply waits, sometimes with a troubled face perhaps, and sometimes with an aching heart, for the chance to break through.

“The Lord is my shepherd - there is nothing I shall want.”

Love will not rest till all hearts can pray this with joy and thankfulness.