When we use the word “and” we usually do so to refer to two different things, ideas or situations; not so when speaking of God. With God each distinctive attribute is the same because God is each; there is no separation. His love is His mercy, His mercy is His compassion, His Son is His Spirit. Brothers and sisters let there be no separation among us; all are children in the House of God.
In wonderment, at the annunciation, Mary held these things in her heart.
The wisdom of our hearts tells us, the greatest gift is creation; without it there is nothing at all. Each of us is unique in body and soul. The body’s greatest gift is the soul. It is ours to nourish and protect as we navigate this world of strife and temptation. Our connection to the divine is the triune body, the mother the father and the kiss of Christ which is our soul and the reflection of the triune God.
“Many people promise themselves that they will live a holy life but they fail because they have been put into the furnace and have come out cracked!!!” St. Augustine
Commentary
The humbling fact about being human is that we are all like pots that have been kept in the oven too long. We have come into the world “cracked” in one way or another and, despite our occasional delusion of grandeur, we remain cracked pots.
These cracks show themselves primarily in our confused mind and weak will. As Augustine told his listeners,
Either you don’t know what you should do or, if you do know, you discover that you are too weak to do it. Such confusion and weakness is the root of very evil that we humans do.
At the same time, there are good reasons for hope. Jesus is not only our Lord God, he is also our doctor. He comes no to condemn us but to heal us. As Augustine says;
The important thing is not to give up while the healing is going on. Remember that Jesus loved you when there was little lovely about you at all. Can you imagine what he will do for you when you are finally healed, considering that he died for you when you were still warped and ugly?
With all its dimensions, in all its searching and yearning, life holds but one truth and that’s Love. Love which shone through the eternal presence of the Lord into the emptiness of what would be. Love traveled faster than light, faster than thought. Unlike life, Love has no facets. Love is whole and complete. Viewed from any angle, from any vantage point it is found perfect, without form or scope. As in all creation, Faith is the gift and Love is the answer. Know that we cannot sacrifice, we can pour out of our self, self-giving Love; as God poured out Himself in the dawn of His command, ‘let there be light’. Jesus was and is our sacrifice. Did He not say, ‘I am going where you cannot come’? We cannot enter into His sacrifice, nor would we want to; too great is He. We are His witnesses and in His image and likeness we can Love.