MESSENGERS OF UNIVERSAL LOVE
July 5, 2010
One
of the obvious things about our world is that it is hurting.
Wherever we turn we are confronted with a suffering and
incomplete humanity. We may be especially surprised by the
capacity of individuals and groups of persons or nations to
inflict violence on others. And when we consider the already
realized potential for evil and injustice, we may choose to look
away, to try to forget the world with its overwhelming needs,
and to evade our personal responsibility to minister to that
world.
The problem is unfortunately compounded by the condition of
our own hearts. If we look there with an honest gaze we shall
find many of the same ills that beset our world. This moment of
truth turns many persons away from themselves as well as away
from the world. The result is a kind of schizoid existence in
which neither the self nor the world is ever realistically
appropriated.
We are nevertheless called to
witness to the world and to minister to its needs: “The Spirit
of Truth will bear witness to me, says the Lord, and you also
will be my witnesses” (Jn. 15:26, 27). Jesus sends us out into
the world as “his Father sent him into the world” (Jn. 17:18).
Can we hope to share in the mission Jesus extends to us? And
what must we do to ready ourselves for authentic missionary
activity in our world?
First of all, there can be no doubt that we are called to
share in the ministry of Jesus. “I shall not call you servants
any longer, because a servant does not know his master’s
business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you
everything I have learned from my Father” (Jn. 15:15). There are
two valuable points to consider here: one is that our
relationship to Christ is one of friendship; and the other is
that Christ has transmitted to us what he himself has received
from the Father.
Both of these considerations – our friendship with Christ
and the access we have to a special knowledge he offers us –
require us to enter into our heart. The heart is the workshop
wherein we ready ourselves to be the unique witness that God
calls each of us to be. It is also the repository of the
spiritual teaching Jesus alludes to when he tells us he has
taught us what we need to know to carry out his mission. The
knowledge Jesus means is not easily conveyed in words. Rather,
it is a kind of knowing that comes from having one’s heart
continually touched by the Lord. It is a way of understanding
with the heart that has been created by a gradual, if at times
painful, preference for being schooled in the mysterious ways of
the Lord.
A person who begins to respond to a call he senses from the
Lord enters into his heart and finds there the courage he needs
to face the darkness and the emptiness of his own heart. He will
not become dismayed or “lose heart” for he has already
discovered a Presence greater than his own which bears him up
and renews his fainting spirit. The knowledge he gains is an
increasing awareness of the insufficiency of his existence in
relation to the fullness of the Eternal Being of God.
The need for healing that we may uncover in our hearts can
serve as the beginning of our formation as witnesses to God’s
love. The recognition of inner poverty effects a spiritual
integration in the Body of the Lord, and the depth of our
solitude provides a space in our hearts for the Spirit to
inspire us according to God’s ways, to transform our hearts, and
to convert us from self-centeredness to God-centeredness.
The essential loneliness of the solitary heart is
necessarily open to the healing Presence and Friendship of
Christ. When the ego dominates a person’s life, loneliness may
be denied; but as a person inhabits his heart as the center of
his existence the loss of his ordinary self and its controls
leaves him feeling powerless, abandoned, alone. He appropriates
his need for contact with a love that transcends the bounds of
his ordinary ambitions and aspirations. He yearns for an
experience of love that is boundless and universal. The haunting
experience of appropriating one’s need for God’s love, and the
faith that comes from having that need met by an uncompromising
offer of friendship and affirmation, are two foundational events
that enable a person to return to the world as a messenger of
love.
The Return to the World
“The Ox and His Herdsman,” a familiar Zen text, teaches that
whoever experiences truth in himself (in his heart) goes into
the world to liberate others: he immerses and concentrates
himself in liberating. In the final stage of the Ox-herding
pictures, the Herdsman enters the market-place with open hands.
This he does out of compassion for those who may need his
guidance. The Herdsman enters the world of multiplicity to visit
wineshops and fish stalls and to awaken drunkards to themselves.
The image of the open hands refers to the generosity, the
open-heartedness, of the Herdsman. After a long search for his
ox, i.e. his original self, he and the ox become invisible,
leaving the original self free to return to the ordinary world.
The original self appears as a “holy fool,” wandering about from
morning till night in the town, “face smeared with earth, head
covered with ashes,” like a fool in the dusty world.
Similarly, after being wounded by God’s love, the Christian
witness is restored to the world as a messenger of love. The
solitude of his heart has broken him open to transcendent
meaning and love and brought him closer to his original self as
created by God. In humility and self-forgetfulness he returns to
the world in order to participate in it according to the unique
image or form of Christ in his soul.
Pope John-Paul II has stated that the new missionary aim is
to be a sign and expression of universality in the midst of all
local churches and continents of the earth. Those who have
followed Christ into their own hearts are best prepared for this
missionary task. In the silence of their hearts they have
learned to let go of their compulsive pursuits and to cling
instead to the universal truth of God’s love and faithfulness.
Having experienced this love and faithfulness themselves, they
become friends of Christ and his mission and, in their turn, go
forth to bring the message of universal love to all people.
Each man or woman who witnesses to the universal dimension
of God’s love has been given a responsibility that is uniquely
his or hers in ministering to the world. This unique
responsibility flows from the ability each person has to respond
to God and to the persons, events and things of the world. No
two persons bring exactly the same healing gifts.
The originality of each person in Christ also prescribes the
messenger’s limitations as an instrument of universal love. The
time he has spent in the desert of his heart will have taught
him the value of humility and self-possession. The messenger who
overzealously immerses himself in the world’s varied needs risks
personal exhaustion and collapse, and he may end by having done
many things, but failed what was uniquely his to do. No single
messenger is called to save the whole world or to respond to
every need, but only to be faithful to the tasks that God gives
her to perform during the unfolding of her life.
Because the messenger of love is a witness to God’s love and
faithfulness, his presence to the world is marked by
God-consciousness as well as social-consciousness. His presence
is an expression of the Lord’s love and care for all persons,
whatever their social class, profession or cultural style. In
personally congenial ways the messenger is present to those who
are underprivileged in any material, social or spiritual aspect
of life.
The messenger of universal
love places a strong value on his personal relationship with the
Lord, and he finds in prayer the means of remaining in his
Presence. His access to the Lord through prayer sustains him in
the midst of sometimes wearying and apparently fruitless social
action. As he learns to rely more on the Lord than on his own
strengths and criteria of success, he grows in the Presence of
God which provides a continual backdrop for all of his actions
in the world. Finally, the presence of the messenger radiates
peace, for it is the Absolute Presence of God that takes over in
him and relativizes the pains of a suffering world. Thus, while
the messenger of love participates in alleviating the “cry of
the world” he also celebrates God’s unwavering presence to that
world:
I will celebrate your love forever, Yahweh,
Age after age my words shall proclaim your
faithfulness;
For I claim that love is built to last
forever
And your faithfulness founded firmly in the
heavens.
(Ps. 89:1-2)
Compassionate Presence
We have seen that the witness to God’s universal love is
formed for her mission by an encounter with the Lord in the
depths of her heart. The formation of her heart leads to
self-knowledge, to a realistic awareness of her sinfulness and
her need for redemption. Her heart has been transformed by the
encounter, and she becomes a freer instrument of God’s love and
mercy.
In Waiting on God Simone Weil writes: “The
world needs saints with genius, just as a plague-stricken town
needs doctors.” The compassionate presence of the messenger of
love is an inspired response to the world’s need for saints with
genius. By witnessing to God’s forgiveness and mercy, the
messenger reflects the Lord’s compassion for all of Creation.
Her attitudes of gentleness and acceptance make it easier for
others to accept themselves and their situations; her patience
with herself provides hope for those who despair of being loved
in their present condition.
Above all, the compassionate messenger incarnates universal
love by offering the emptiness of her heart as a means for
others to return to God. The space in her heart that has been
created out of solitude and self-recognition is now a place
where others may awaken to the uniqueness of their original
selves and to their responsibility for ministering to and
forming the world.
