One evening last week I had the great pleasure of co-leading a retreat at my parish. As a group, using examples from our lives, we reflected that a powerful way to draw closer to God is through our relationships with one another.
It has been said that to know God we only need to look at Jesus. And of course, Jesus’ message of Love focused on bringing others into a true relationship with God and with one another.
The early church strove to live in the light of Love which they learned from Jesus; St. Paul modeled his life on Jesus’ way, and encouraged his communities to do the same. Since then countless others—what we call the communion of Saints and which includes us—have lived their lives in that same light. Human beings, created in God’s own image—the image of Love—work hard every day to emulate those inherited divine characteristics: life-giving, patient, merciful, consoling, renewing, forgiving, encouraging, and so on.
That’s what I believe. But in many ways it seems we have forgotten what love looks like.
And then, this morning a friend of mine shared this 5-1/2 minute video, entitled What is That? on her Facebook timeline. I don’t know the director’s intention in creating this film, but for me, it crystallized not only what God’s Love looks like, but how easy it is to forget it when we lose sight of one another. Have a look.
©2007. Constantin Pilavios
The Good Disciple 