Last Updated on February 2, 2023 by GMC
21st Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday (Year II)
Matthew 24:42-51
Jesus said to his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42).
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
Paradise begins in our heart today where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the saints and all our neighbors dwell, one within the other. In the heart there is no social distancing, boundaries or limits. The infinite love of God fills heaven and earth in the immeasurable space of the heart. In stillness and silence, all is one and all is many.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love” (1 John 4:18).
Fear is a poor motivation for everlasting love. Fear looks down while walking on water and sinks. Fear looks to the left and to the right, losing its balance. Fear is a scission between “I” and “Thou.”
Love seeks no reward and fears no punishment. Divine love is supreme, perfect and sublime. To love, nothing can be added. Love is undivided within and without, with God and with neighbor. Indivisibility casts out fear.
Deification is becoming all eye—the divine eye: “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me: my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing and one love” (Meister Eckhart, Sermon 57, Walshe trans.).
One who is all eye is awake.
This post reads like a Love Letter to God, so we may know and appreciate His love for us. And we may love Him in return. Thank you!