Study: When in your life have you experienced love without words? How did you know that you were loved even when nothing was said?
Pray: Ask the Lord for guidance – who am I called to love today? How am I called to love?
Serve: What random act of kindness can I offer today for another? How can I let the Love of Christ shine through my efforts?
In my travels I have found myself on occasion in the company of people who did not speak English. Indeed, when I would try my limited Spanish or Italian (or even my Latin!), I found that we had no common foundation upon which to communicate. I wanted to share my thoughts, but I did not possess the medium to make it happen.
As I was explaining this frustration to one of my professors, he shared with me a common language that affects us all. It is a language that all of us can understand even though we use different words to explain it. The language? Mathematics.
Imagine the number five (“5”). Around the world the number is essentially the same, yet the word to describe it is very different:
In English: “five”
In Italian: “cinque”
In Greek: “pente”
You get the idea. The number means the same, but is spoken in a different way in each language.
Through time and space God has come to humanity in many different ways. God has communicated to us through different instruments (Prophets, Dreams, Visions, Saints, Nature…), and God has spoken in many different languages (Jesus spoke Aramaic, the New Testament is written in Greek, St. Augustine wrote in Latin…).
Yet God uses one word again and again among us – LOVE. Indeed, we are told that God is love (1 John 4:8). This love is seen most clearly in the mystery of the Trinity, where God comes to us in love to teach us how to love one another.
God the Father created us in love. God the Son redeemed us out of love by his death and resurrection. God the Holy Spirit sustains us in our lives to put this love into practice.
Jesus speaks of the love of the Father (John 15:9), and the Lord tells the disciples that out of love he will ask the Father to send the Spirit (John 14:16). Love is the reason God made us, God saved us, and God strengthens us today.
If love is the language God shares with us, then we are invited to speak this language in our lives. Our call as Christians is to proclaim in our words and actions the love of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For if our love is sincere, then it will communicate in a language that breaks all boundaries.
June 11th, 2014 at 7:14 pm
Each time I raise my one year old Grandson high over my head I tell him I love him. For this 6′, 5″ man to do that, it might not look quite normal. I think it’s what God wants us to teach and show the young. Miss our talks at the bean factory in Cumberland, Father Andy!