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February 12

Union with God

The great longing of Christians throughout the ages has not so much been a longing for heaven, but to be more fully united to God. The great love of the Christian is to be lost in the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In our world of pragmatism and activism driven by the economic dream of much-having—a dream that has also impacted the vision of the church—we need to be careful that we do not lose the central thrust of the biblical story.

That central thrust, while it includes the call to serve God in our world in the ministry of evangelization and the work for justice, is the invitation to know God and to enjoy him forever. The first call is always to spiritual intimacy before we hear the call to loving service. Homecoming to the embrace of God is always the first move before being scattered to be salt, light, and leaven in our world.

While we need to be immersed in the world, we first need to be

enamored with God. While there is the call to serve, there is also the call to love and friendship.

The medieval mystic Jan van Ruysbroeck reminds us how important it is to become friends with God and to enter into a fuller communion with God. He writes, “All our powers then fail us and we fall down in open contemplation. All become one and one becomes all in the loving embrace of the threefold Unity. When we experience this Unity, we become one being, one life, and one blessedness with God.”43

Reflection

To enter more deeply into the love of God in Christ through the Spirit is to find our true home and our true purpose.