“Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” – Mk 16:15
Genuine
love cannot be contained. Like the life-force emanating from all created
beings, it is resilient, persistent, unstoppable. Like water over-spilling its
container, love overflows beyond a person’s heart and hands. Peter and John in
Acts 4 risk further imprisonment and persecution by proclaiming that it is
impossible not to testify to what they’ve experienced regarding the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Through
retreat work and sharing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, I am very
blessed to know people who are experiencing God’s love in such a way and depth
that they cannot keep it to themselves. Their tales of transformation are
inspiring: a young woman is quitting her high paying job to spend four months
serving the poor and making a month-long retreat not because she’s having a
crisis, but because she wants to respond more deeply to God with her life; a
single mother who struggled with depression, trying to earn love and seek
approval much of her life now shares about the joys of praying early every
morning, taking walks with God, experiencing peace consistently, even through
her times of loneliness, and empowering her children to honest discovery of
their own faith; a reserved Vietnamese man apologizing to his children and
family in public with an honesty and humility that elicits similar courage from
other men; a young couple grieving the loss of their newborn with raw openness
and strength that reverberate through both of their own extended families.
These stories are proclaimed by action more than by words. These people carry out St Francis of Assisi’s
advice: “Proclaim the Gospel always; and when necessary, use words.” Our new
Pope seems to be one of these people.
There
is a clear pattern happening to these people: as they allow themselves to be
touched, healed, forgiven, lead, etc… they magnify God’s love and goodness.
They cannot keep such life-force to themselves. Moreover, the more they let God
effect grace in their lives, the more they become instruments of peace and joy.
Step-by-step, in ordinary living, with openness, they join this revolution of
love, this conspiracy of grace, this contagion of life. They manifest an ordinary witness
of extraordinary love. They inspire people around them. I am one of these
people, who is empowered to be likewise.
Who
around you are witnesses of grace? Spend time in their presence and joy.
“O Risen One, grace me
with your humility and courage to magnify your presence and love in the way I
treat people around me.”
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