6-10-22 - How the Love Gets In

You can listen to this reflection here.

I want to end our week with the epistle reading appointed for Sunday, Romans 5:1-5; specifically the last line, which says: “…God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

If we wonder how the Love we worship and rely on is delivered to us, Paul clarifies that it is a by-product of the Holy Spirit, God’s most essential gift to us. The idea that this love is inside us, ours already, rather than outside to be somehow sought or obtained – or, worse, earned – is a radical reminder to us of what grace is. Grace is unmerited favor, gift without contract or condition.

There are many gifts packed into the gift of Holy Spirit – peace, power, presence; courage, compassion, contrition; healing and hope; to name but an alliterative few. All of these are contained in the supreme gift of God’s love, God’s “yes” in the face of all the world’s “no’s.” God's love is gift to us.

And God’s love is gift throughus. We are the means through which God intends his love to reach those who do not yet know him, whose hearts perhaps have not be open to receiving her love or her Spirit. It’s up to us to make the introductions, to live and speak and interact with such light and love that people around us can see that love in us, and come to want it for themselves.

Do you feel the love of God in your heart today? I do believe it is there, but I also know all kinds of things in our lives and persons can block its flow: fear, insecurity, envy, resentment, sin… Our task is to release this love poured into us so that its flow into, around and through us is unimpeded. If you are aware of an obstacle to that flow, I invite you to lift it in prayer and invite the Spirit to help you move or transform it. 

However you feel today, take some time to be present to the Love that has been poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit. How does knowing that pool of love is there change your day, your work, your life? Where and to whom do you want it to flow next? The prayer is simple: Come, Holy Spirit.

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