Transforming Love

It’s a whole endeavor to love, as love goes beyond just one facet of our being. “…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). It is an outpouring of the heart, the mind and the soul, and tucked in there is suppose to be all of our strength.  What does it mean to love from each of these places and what about strength- where is that suppose to come from? I’ve read and said this scripture too many times to recount, and yet, I am sure I have not come close to grasping the depths of its’ meaning.

I contemplate this: if the heart is the receptacle for God’s love; and if the soul is the breath that powers that love; and if the strength is our unselfishness; and if the mind is the floodgate that permits love to flow; then all of this, I believe, can create transformative love, not only in ourselves, but in others as well. The more I can open my heart to receive God’s love, the more I can share that love with others. If I can conquer the mind and its’ sarcasm, negativity, judgement, criticism, or anything else that prevents me from freely giving, then I can share more of God’s love. And if the soul, which is the innermost aspect of man (according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church), created in the image of God, can more fully unite itself with God, then it can be the breath that propels this love. And if I can love with all my strength because selfishness has been removed, love will be powerful and transformative!

I was looking in one of my old  journals and stumbled across these entries. Funny how things in our journal recycle and resurface. Not always do I understand the depth of meaning, so I am thankful the Lord recalls it for further contemplation. Here is what I found:

Great love is required when giving up what one desires. Through sacrifice one learns what deep love is. It is the Lord’s love that sanctifies, transforms, restores and renews. Give love as the Lord gives. The beauty in giving love so freely is that it transforms those who receive it.

Honestly, I am selfish. I’ll give up some, but I like what I like, especially my time. It is selfishness, for one thing, that prevents me from experiencing deep love. This doesn’t mean that I am suppose to give away all of my time or whatever else I am being asked to give, as there are healthy boundaries we should follow. The challenge is to say “yes” to where the Lord is asking me to sacrifice. You see, when He calls us to sacrifice, He is inviting us to experience deep love; the deep love that Jesus and his Father experienced. What if I begin to look at my sacrifices as invitations to enter into and experience His deep love? Through sacrifice, one learns what deep love is.

God wants us to experience this kind of love, not a fleeting, feel good, selfish or worldly love, but a deep, intimate and abiding love. This is the kind of love that gave up everything in order to bring about our salvation, sanctification, restoration and renewal; this is the kind of love that brings about our transformation. As recipients of this gift of love, we are asked to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” And in loving our “neighbor,” whether family, friend or stranger, we have the opportunity of not only being transformed by love, but transforming those we deeply love.