Wide Embrace of Love

Scripture

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. …. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.   (John 17:20-23 NRSV)

June 1, 2020

Wide Embrace of Love

A wide, perhaps imperceptible, emotional and psychological toll is being paid by so many of us. With summer camps closed My thoughts go to a young woman anticipating a leadership development summer. The growth in the young moving from 15 to 16 is far greater than for me going from one geezer year to the next.

Young couples with small children trying to manage both professional schedules while managing little Louise and Larry (and maybe the family dog) are facing stresses they had not seen before. There are the lonely, the abused, the financially stressed and forgotten who haven’t the comfort of family or friends.

My prayer is that the love of God that is expressed between Jesus and his Father will be their experience in some subtle but powerful way. Before his death Jesus prayed for us, for them, that his sense of being beloved would be ours.

The other morning when I was praying, I was overwhelmed with the idea Jesus expressed that God loves us as much as he loves Jesus. The mutual love of the Trinity, profound and infinite, embraces us in some mystery – we are as beloved as Jesus. He told us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. The self-love of the Godhead embraces us in an all-encompassing love the same way.

The prayer for today is one that some of our groups have resonated with as we used it to end our Zoom call conversations. I hope it assures you of God’s presence where you are.

A Prayer for Today

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and will never leave me to face my perils alone. (Thomas Merton)