This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
“I will love them freely,” says God through the prophet Hosea in the first reading. His all-powerful, tender, effective, fruitful, refreshing love will be poured out on His people without measure.
Rarely do we find more enthusiastic imagery in the words Jesus, than those He uses when He describes this outpouring of divine love: “A good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.” (cf. Lk. 6:38)
Lent is a time for purification from attachments to created things, our own ideas, our own feelings, that hold our will, even at the expense of our faithfulness to God. It is a time for purification from attachments, so that we may access this divine outpouring.
But if it is a time for detachment, it is even more a time for increased attachment–attachment to God, as the humble and wise scribe in today’s gospel articulates:
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
It would appear that this scribe had tasted God somewhere along the way, both because of his clear understanding of the primacy of loving God and neighbor, and because in speaking of the “worth” of the love of God, he seems to be speaking from personal experience.
And that is just it. Detachment alone does not lead us to God. If we do not experience God and attach ourselves to Him, we become like the heart Jesus compares to a house, saying that when it is all cleaned out, it merely becomes a more welcoming place for worse demons to come and reside (cf. Mt. 12:43-45).
Attachment to God, based on experience of God. Experience of God requires something so simple that it is almost silly: Dedication of time each day, say, a half hour, for dialogue with Him in prayer. If we open our hearts to Him with consistency, He will not fail to fill our hearts with love for Him–attachment to Him.
So it is that, in addition to fasting and self-denial, the Church urges us to increase our prayer during Lent.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you to understand the attraction of loving God, and to help you with His Spirit to attain an authentic attachment to God above all things. Tell Him that you cannot attain this on your own through edifying readings, attendance at church, or any other means. Ask Him to generously infuse this love into your heart.
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