I've had this reoccurring thought of late. Well, maybe 'thought' is not as accurate a description as experience. Perhaps, we'll call it a ontological realization?
It has struck me of late that the full extent of the Christian claim seems to be often overlooked. Though the gospel message usually takes the familiar evangelistic form of 'personal salvation', the revelation of Christ, which His Church proclaims, is so much more expansive: it encompasses the entirety of time and space, of all that was, is, and will be. The Christian proclamation is that divinity came to earth and ushered in the redemption of all of creation. Everything that God created at the beginning of time is being called back to its original purpose, its original end goal, its original essence. It is being called back to reflect the maker and ruler of the universe. It is being called back to love.
This was the realization that has been shadowing me for these past days/weeks: love truly is the source of all being. The essence of the universe, of all reality, is love.
Often, misguided Christians present a universe comprised of good and evil as if evil is something on par with good. This could not be further from the truth. Evil is the descent away from the real, the descent into non-being. Thus, something is only real insofar as it accurately reflects the goodness and love that is the source, the essence, of all reality.
Some might say that I'm looking through the world with rose-coloured glasses. Perhaps they are looking at the world through the blinders of jaded-skepticism. "I'm not jaded, I'm just a realist"... really? Who is more the realist, the one who loves, or the one who scoffs? I say that it is only the one with a heart open to love who is able to see things for what they are. The scoffer, the mocker, the jaded skeptic, they will only blind themselves to the fullness of the world around them; they will only allow themselves to see what little filters through their dark lenses. I refuse to bear the burden of those lenses.
I am fond of asserting, amor est vitae essentia (love is the essence of life). My dear wife chides me sometimes about this and jokingly groans when I begin to give answer to a question, exclaiming, "let me guess, love... it's always about love for you". Yes, yes it is.
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