BELOVED CHILD OF GOD
When I became a mom my relationship with God evolved. And the mysterious unknown wilderness that is parenthood became our cathedral. It is where God shows me what it is like to love me in how I love my children. It's been discovery after discovery of how I am loved unconditionally in my complexity and the nuances of my spiritual journey.
In today's Gospel, Jesus tells us to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father".
I admit that I struggle with loving people when they are hard to love. The family member who said or did hurtful things, the cable news anchor who says things that I don't agree with, the person of influence in Catholicism or Christianity who proclaims messages contrary to my experience of God's love. Just writing this out I feel the struggle and resistance to being kind, let alone loving.
But when I shift my focus from "my enemies" to the latter part that says "that you may be children of your heavenly Father" the tension in me eases. I feel how much I love my children and I understand and know that the God who made me in their image loves me beyond my own understanding and experience of that love. That type of depth and expansiveness is an all-consuming consolation.
From that place, loving “my enemies" becomes a part of my identity as a child of God. That doesn't necessarily make it easier. But it reminds me that that kind of love - the kind that changes the world - is in me. I'm made of that stuff. I inherited it from God.
I remember something I was taught in a retreat I once - when we are in desolation, remembering the last experience of consolation can be helpful.
Today, when it is hard to love others, perhaps remembering the last experience of God's love can be helpful.
Beloved Child of God, when was the last time you experienced God's love?
Rae Visita Izquierdo