Jul 18 Sat
What does true Love look like?
Most people think more readily in pictures than in abstract concepts, and stories move and transform us more than logical arguments do. God, who, of course, knows this, has revealed Himself to us by becoming part of our story and, over the centuries, giving us a series of vivid images that are worth thousands of words.
Three of these images, or pictures, are closely related. The first and most ancient is the CRUCIFIX, a reminder of God’s willingness, out of incomprehensible love, to accept pain, and even death, to bring us out of eternal damnation.
This is a symbol of God’s inexpressible love and mercy, and our horrifying sin. Can we learn more about God and human nature by contemplating the Crucifix than by reading dozens of theology and psychology books?
But God is also aware of our fathomless capacity to take even the best gifts for granted and to trivialize even the most sacred and profound things. Many centuries after Christ was crucified, He revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque the image of His SACRED HEART, ringed with thorns, cross-crowned, a gash—the result of the centurion's spear—all aflame with love.
Jesus’ Sacred Heart reveals his willingness to be despised and insulted, out of love for us, only to move us to go back to Him.
It directs our attention to Christ's sacrifice as an act of love, taking pity on humanity's rebelliousness and insensibility.
In the 20th century, God painted a third picture revealing His love and mercy, the DIVINE MERCY.
Harsh wounds do not appear in the Divine Mercy image, and the brutality inflicted on the Lord is only implied in a full-figure picture of Jesus pointing to His Heart. Two beams of light radiate out—one red, one white—representing the blood and water that flowed when the Roman soldier pierced Christ's heart as He hung on the Cross, representing also the sacraments of baptism (the water) and the Eucharist (the blood) as well as the love and mercy of God falling on us in a heavenly shower.
Inundated as we are with an ocean of Internet pornography and an endless barrage of advertising, how helpful to be washed in the rain of Divine Mercy by a picture painted by God Himself for His beloved children.
The Crucifixion happened 2000 years ago. The resurrected Christ has seen to it that it remains with us in these three vivid images: the most literal, the Crucifix itself; the second, the image of His wounded Sacred Heart; the third, a portrait of Himself pouring forth from that Heart what He will not keep to Himself: His infinite compassion and kindness, fathomless mercy, and love.
Each of those images speaks thousands of words, each word an expression of the Word that was from the beginning, that was with God, that was God, that became flesh and dwelt among us, a living picture of God, who is Love.
Put together these three images, and there you have what true Love is all about.