The core belief of all the great world religions is that the underlying reality is love. Teilhard de Chardin says that “love is the very physical structure of the universe.” Everything is desiring union with everything in one sense or another. I actually believe that what it means to know and trust God is to trust that Love is the source, heart, engine, and goal of life. Our primal and deepest act of faith is the willingness to somehow say, “It’s okay” because at its core all of reality is good and of God. (Ironically and sadly, many religious people say they love God but they do not trust the goodness at the heart of all reality.)
The Christian belief in the Trinity makes it clear that God is an event of communion. God is not a noun nearly as much as a verb. We’ve always thought of God as an autonomous Supreme Being, rather than as Being itself, as an energy that moves within itself (“Father”), beyond itself (“Christ”), and drawing us into itself (“Holy Spirit”). When Christianity begins to take this pivotal and central doctrine of the Trinity with practical seriousness, it will be renewed on every level.
All of creation is a perfect giving and a perfect receiving between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, with no withholding and no rejecting. St. Bonaventure called God “A Fountain Fullness.” Once we begin with outpouring love as the foundational pattern of reality, and love as the very shape of God, then everything somehow has to fall into that same family resemblance. If this is the Creator, then somehow this must be the DNA of all of the creatures.
Love is where we came from. And love is where we are going. When we live in love, we will not be afraid to die. We have built a bridge between worlds. As Paul says “Love does not come to an end” and “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8, 13).
Adapted from Gate of the Temple: Spirituality and Sexuality, disc 1
(CD, MP3 download);
and
The Divine Dance: Exploring the Mystery of Trinity, disc 4
(CD,
MP3 download);
and
Adam’s Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation,
pp. 165-166
Gateway to Silence:
Love is What Is.
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