Reflections in Ordinary Time

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 31, 2005

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, neither powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8: 38-39

No Man Is an Island

We are most easily convinced when we hear what we want to believe. It doesn't take much persuading to get me to go along with Paul's conviction that nothing can separate us from the love of God. That is one article of faith I really want to believe. I am far enough along in faith to know how bad things would be without God's love, so I gladly say my Amen to Paul's eloquent words.

So nothing can separate me from the love of God? Well, almost nothing. Actually, there is one way I can be separated from God's love. I can do it myself.

From God's side, love is rock-solid. It is unconditional and never-ending. Nothing I have ever done or will do can make God stop loving me. The problem is on my side of the relationship. I don't yet have what it takes to be deeply in love with God. When God makes an overture of love to me, I might turn it down.

God's love is like nothing in this world. It is overwhelming. To receive it we have to empty ourselves of everything else, including our own self-interest, and be completely open to it. But in our present human condition we are not able to be so selfless and open that God can really take hold of us with his love. Maybe in heaven we will be able to live like angels in the immediacy of God's love, but in this earthly life, we are not ready for it. Our time on earth is a long and difficult project of learning how to love. Since we are not ready yet to love God directly, we have to start with something we can handle - loving one another.

But don't confuse love with warm feelings. Love can get messy at times. Sometimes it means accepting people we don't get along with, people very different from ourselves, people with whom we have little in common. Love can become contentious too. Sometimes we see things we know are not right and we have to challenge others about them. We can't always keep silent. Indifference, which is the easiest response to the demands of love, has enormous consequences.

We belong to a family that embraces all humanity. If I exclude someone, I diminish myself as a person because I set limits on how much I am willing to grow in love. When I push a human person aside, I close the door through which God enters my life, and all the piety in the world won't open it.

God's love is what we are created for, and nothing else will fulfill us. The people God puts in our life are not obstacles to be overcome, but opportunities to be embraced. They do not separate us from God; they lead us to him. Love is a commitment to leave no one behind on the journey to God. If we don't find our way together, we won't find it at all.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

- John Donne (1624)

Read another reflection on love.