Living forever in love

On this day in 1994 I began my journey with the Society of the Sacred Heart. Epiphany, with its interwoven themes of journeying and faith-filled following of a star, and of Christ's revelation of himself, was a good time to enter. Rather like the Magi, I too had arrived somewhere; had found the One I had been seeking, whilst also embarking on a new stage of what has become a lifelong, life-transforming journey. 

My community gave me this little heart to wear, as a sign and a reminder of the all-embracing Heart whose love I seek to make mine, and to make known. And indeed, it was Love that had led me to the Society: love, and a desire for 'more' of God, which began as a restless quest for an indefinable, un-graspable 'more', before I eventually came to know that this 'more' was in fact God. A long questing, and a journey back to the God who had never let me go... And then a powerful, utterly defining and indelible moment, when God overwhelmed me with a revelation of the strength and depth of his unlimited, unconditional love for me. I knew I was loved; knew too that I was called to love back, and to love widely, making known something of this love. 

The other day, conscious that our Jubilee of Hope is ending just as greater hope is so desperately needed, I re-read Spes non confundit, the document by which Pope Francis convoked the Jubilee year. And I was struck by these words from paragraph 21...

What is the happiness that we await and desire? Not some fleeting pleasure, a momentary satisfaction that, once experienced, keeps us longing for more, in a desperate quest that leaves our hearts unsated and increasingly empty. We aspire to a happiness that is definitively found in the one thing that can bring us fulfilment, which is love. Thus, we will be able to say even now: I am loved, therefore I exist; and I will live forever in the love that does not disappoint, the love from which nothing can ever separate me.

Yes: I have yearned and sought, and come to know that I am loved; created by and made for Love... And it was Love that led me here, to the Society of Jesus' all-loving Heart... And I will live forever in love, in this abundant Love, which will never leave me, nor let me go...

Happy Epiphany, everyone! May we all find and know the one thing which can bring us fulfillment - the love by and for which we were created, for a world so sorely wounded and in need of all-encompassing Love's healing and hope.