There was an article in Zenit yesterday [LINK] asking if it is possible to make the Church's message "brilliant and attractice". Some argued in response that it's no longer possible [LINK]. What John could be thought of as doing in this series is trying to make the Jesus' message "brilliant and attractive". All of us engaged in the process of "pondering" — asking ourselves questions about what it all means; what our own lives mean; how we might better live our lives; or simply "be happy"? These are the sort of questions John Chuchman has been pondering in this series. The connecting central word in last week's ponder, this one today and the two to come in the word "love".

Pondering Five

Series Navigation: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII

Being In Love

I can only make my way
through my passion for human existence
to self-realization
through self-transcendence
by seeking
Meaning,
Truth,
Value,
Beauty,
Sacredness,
and
Love.

This self-transcendence
is not a journey into the meaningless,
or the imaginary,
or something
unwise, untrue, or unreal.
It is to be in a state of
Being-in-Love.

When I am in
an authentic state of Being-in-Love,
I sense the True Worth of
the object of my Love.

When I am
a Being-in-Love,
I seem ever disposed
to reach beyond myself
into the Other's world of experience,
manifesting itself in
compassion and collaboration.

With the Divine,
it is not that God has Love,
but that
God is Love.
God is unrestricted pure
Being-in-Love.

God as Being-in-Love
is fully conscious,
a state of utter
self-transcendence,
an infinite affirmation
of the worth of such Love,
an unrestricted commitment
to being Love
in every conceivable instance.

The Divine Being-in-Love
implies a three-fold subjectivity:
The Creator as the Originating Lover,
The Savior as the Self-Expression of that Love,
The Spirit as the Inexhaustible Loving in Action.

God is
infinite self-realization in Love,
where Love and Self-Transcendence
are utterly identified.

Whereas I have to reach and expand
in order to achieve
Being-in-Love,
God is totally in that state.

The Divine Mystery
is an eternally self-constituting activity of
Being-in-Love,
One Divine Consciousness
articulated as Trinity.

It is Love
without origin,
uttering itself in Truthful self-expression,
always True to itself in Self-Giving.

Love, John Chuchman

This reflection is also published on John Chuchman's blog.

Series Navigation: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII

IMAGE CREDIT:
The background used to support John Chuchman's reflection has been sourced from stock.xchng one of the sources for free images on the net provided by people who voluntarily upload their work for others to share. Daniel Cubillas who is located in Spain provided today's image. A gallery of Daniel's freely available images can be found at: www.sxc.hu/gallery/dcubillas. The flower image in the headline has also been sourced from stock.xchng. John Nyberg who is located in Copenhagen, Denmark provided the image. A gallery of John's images can be found at: www.sxc.hu/gallery/johnnyberg.

John Chuchman

[Index of Commentaries by John Chuchman]