Wednesday, April 4, 2018

How do we Love Christ?

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the Mary Magdalene and the other women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb in which the body of Jesus of Nazareth had been placed.” – Luke 24:1

Mary Magdalene, a woman whose life experienced the healing touch of Christ, a woman who had washed His feet with her tears, went to do “widow’s work” before dawn. She ventured into a place where Roman soldiers were waiting. She ventured into a place of death. While the disciples hid behind closed doors … this woman dared to go into a dangerous, anxious, broken-hearted place. I find Mary Magdalene to be the patron saint of courage. Some might say it was her faith, I believe it was her love, both the love she had received and the love which she gave.

In the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, Mary Magdalene sings “I don’t know how to love Him, what to do, how to move Him, I’ve been changed, yes really changed, in these past few days, when I’ve seen myself I seem like someone else” Near the end of the musical, Simon Peter, the one who struggled with his fears at the arrest of Christ, the one who hid behind closed doors… sings those same words. “I don’t know how to love him.”

I suppose the life of Holy Devotion is a quest to answer that question …how do I love Christ? How do I bring that Essence of Love within my heart into Existence in the living of my soul?

As Time and Experience has slowly formed the living of my soul … I believe the answer is to truly Love others as Christ has loved me. And it is that healing touch of Christ-Love that changes both the one being loved and the one who is loving.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz