Friday, June 19, 2020
 And now for something completely different: God IS Love
In this eleventh week of ordinary time comes another Solemnity, this one even more special, a feast for the “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Celebrate the bleeding heart, pierced by suffering and salvation, red blood falling on the ground.
And then behold the holy healing of Jesus’ heart in that famous Parisian brightly lit, bright white Cathedral of Sacre Coeur, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, beaming down all night from the Right onto the Left Bank, circling and settling into the hearts of all the traveling show of hippies and poets and artists and beatniks drinking wine all night just down below.
Not much to show for a night on the town. But find your way to morning mass, wrestle with your life as you are living it, hear the words of the priest, say them yourself. “OUR Father, who art in heaven.” What is that in French? Notre Pere, qui es aux cieux …
You really are the smallest, you know.
But you are loved.
It is because the Lord loved you that
He brought you out with his strong hand.
So understand!
The Lord your God is God indeed
He is faithful to the thousandth generation
How do you like that?
Love him!
Keep his commandments!
Do not make him dally over you, because he will not.
Bless the Lord o my soul
And all that is within me
Bless his holy name
My life has been redeemed
Sing hallelujah!
There is nothing of anger in the face of the Lord
But only an abundance of kindness
Not punishment according to my sins but
Instead
It is according to his mercy
That he saves me. Us. Saves US.
(I wanted to say, “that he saves my holy ass,” but that sounds a little sacrilegious, so I won’t. Say it.)
And in all this is the love of God, that we are loved and can even begin to love each other.
Jesus brought the message,
 Jesus was the Man
I learned John 4:10 with our kids in Waynesville. It was a Bible song, and I have always remembered it.
1 John 4:10
This is love
Not that we loved God
But he loved us
And sent his son
As an atoning sacrifice
For our sins.
1 John 4:10
This is love!
And then John comes right out and says it:
God IS Love.
Sweet.
#
