The Promise of Love’s Law

Dear Friend,

I was with friends this week having lunch at a restaurant. At the next table was a couple with a small baby. “How old?” my friend asked. “Six weeks,” said the man. It was a “wow” moment and conversation ensued. When their food arrived my friend offered to hold their baby so they could eat. Seeing my friend as a natural, the man passed the baby into my friend’s arms - a smooth handoff and the baby rested gently. Her tiny fingers reached up and then relaxed.

If we’re going to open ourselves to the Spirit of wisdom, as in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we must see ourselves first as that small child, held by gentle, older, wiser hands than ours. Tradition means “that which is handed on” and it is Christ - including Christ within us - which is handed on and nurtured by each one of us as we grow in our understanding of who we are and who we are called to be.  

The depths of our hearts are held by God as surely as my friend held that baby. It is to those depths that Jesus directs his instruction in this week’s Gospel. Here is how we must surrender to God’s love in order to learn how to reach out to one another - how to handle resentments, hard-heartedness, lust, and difficult conversations. We are invited to begin all over again and become like little children.

Thinking about my experience in that restaurant, I couldn’t help but wonder: Would that little baby one day - as a woman - reach out her own hands to hold someone else’s baby? Isn’t that the promise of love’s law? It will not pass away as long as we learn it and gently hand it on by our example.

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm