Receive the Brokenness of All People
I asked Jesus how to live as His companion of love. It is easy when I am in prayer, and He allows me to feel His presence and to see His gaze, but during the day, there are so many distractions. Jesus said: Be attentive to each person you encounter in your life. I live in them. I suffer for them and with them. This is My Body (Mt 25:31-41). My little one, have the docility of heart to receive the brokenness of all people into your heart as ONE with Me. This is participation in the love of the Trinity: to receive the wounds of your brothers and sisters and to give the sacrifice of your life, as ONE with Me, for their salvation and sanctification. This is Love. (2/18/13)
The Love Crucified Community. The Simple Path to Union with God (pp. 111-112). Kindle Edition.
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A paradox exists when seeking to draw near to God as a Christian. I do not doubt that each faith path will draw paradoxical examples as well, as they mature. God is no respecter of people, when one seeks God, it is a response to grace. All love God because they are open to the invitation of intimacy. As Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find”. This is seldom given the attention it needs, for everything that Jesus says has weight.
Over the last few years, the Lord has become more insistent in His seeking me out. As my love and trust grow, so does my experience of how much I resist His loving insistence, which is becoming more intense, frustrating, and painful. At the same time, I can make deep acts of trust. Trust is not always easy for me, yet this struggle is necessary because it makes me aware of what I need to do, and the patience to endure myself.
Prayer is the breath of the soul. It is not a refined luxury available only to those with enough time to develop it. No, prayer, the breath of God, is with us in our struggles, our failures, our pain, and our joys.
As the love of God heals us over time, we find that we can love others more and do not feel the need to judge or box in. We learn to see those who are before us and not imprison them in some illusory group we do not approve of. Once a person feels seen, their defenses drop. In our relationship with God, when we understand that we are also seen fully by God, yet loved, we find our defenses dropping.
Each person shows us Jesus Christ since Jesus identifies with those we consider the lowest and undesirable. This understanding brings suffering because to love is to suffer. If one does not want to suffer, all one needs is to destroy one’s ability to love, but the coldness of the soul is its own kind of suffering, which in the end is worse.
To understand one’s brokenness is to free oneself of the burden of judgment. Actions can be judged, but the soul of another, never. -Br.MD
