- This event has passed.
Vigils Reading
April 16
REVEALING CHRIST’S LOVE
By Caryll Houselander3
◊◊◊
Christ never forced his love on anyone. Though he is perfection, he never
allowed himself to dominate the will and mind of another with his own. He
desired love that would be communion, closer than human marriage, closer
than the life of a mother to her unborn child, an unimaginable communion of
love, but all were to come to it through their own experience, in their own way;
even, by a positive miracle of mercy, through their own sorrow for their sins.
The impulse was to begin for each one in their own heart. It was never a
violation of the individual soul; instead, a gentle, almost imperceptible,
movement of inward life. It could be likened to the quickening of the seed in
the earth, when the warmth and light of the sun which is burning in heaven
comes down through the darkness and enters into it, and the tender green shoot
pushes up towards the light, compelled by the very sun that is so far away, and
yet is within it.
Most people who want to know God and who are outside the Church have
just one thing that is precious to them, though to us with our clear-cut
definitions, our discipline, and our sacraments, it may seem so vague that it is
hard for us to realize how much it means to them. This is their personal
approach to God. Very often it seems to be hardly that at all, so vague is it, so
closely does it lean to sentimentality. It may be simply a memory of childhood,
or a stirring of the heart to God on seeing the first wild spray of blossoms that
proclaim the spring, or the stirring of the spirit when a certain familiar hymn is
heard. But it is surely an indication of that individual’s approach to God and of
his approach to them, and it is as sweet to them as it would be to a blind man if,
reaching out in darkness, he touched the garment hem of Christ.
Christ’s example shows us so clearly and simply how to practice his
objective love, how to learn what is in the hearts of others. First we must realize
everyone separately and approach each one differently. There are those who
come to him through their minds, through study, and through considering the
problems of today, suffering above all.
Sometimes the revelation is secret, and is made through reparation,
through gladly bearing the wounds of sin, our own and the world’s, inwardly,
and offering our suffering and sorrow in Christ’s to redeem the world and bring
peace and the forgiveness of sins. By this means it is that Christ in us still passes
through the locked doors of other lives, of closed minds, and frightened hearts.
3 The Risen Christ. Caryll Houselander, Sheed & Ward, New York, 1958, pp. 38-49.6