Loving and being loved

If Holy Love is the ultimate reality, then loving, and being loved, in a way that honours the image of God, is the most important thing.

We live in a society that places a high value on work, achievement and status. We spend a lot of time busily doing things, keeping to schedules; this is all very laudable, but it can be to the detriment of our relationships.

Kingdom culture cherishes relationships as the imaging of the Trinity, and accords them the place they deserve. Relationships themselves are as real and concrete as people. Or, better, just as every person is ultimately grounded in the hyperpersonal God, so also is every relationship.

Marriage flowering into family is one of the best metaphors we have for the kind of relationship that exists within the Godhead. This is why marriage is hedged with sacred protection.

So we learn, then, in the laboratory of love that is the Church, to be accepted and cherished for who we really are, that is, the image of God, realised by the saving power of Christ. We learn to be vulnerable and dependent in the ways that we were created to be, and also learn self-government and humble, joyful, creative autonomy; a kind of dependent independence that is the truest expression of our humanity, our createdness, of the Image of God in us. These are the things Adam was being shown in the Garden before we lost our way. Now the Way has returned to us, and the Second Adam has shown us a better way.

We also learn the path of healing, and of the rhythm of return to the One who heals and restores us from the damage inflicted by distorted relationships and deathly words. We are called to be Citadels of Life, Houses of Healing, Fortresses of Love.

We learn, slowly, not to be shocked by the way the world treats us, but also that we should never regard it as normal: our Norm is the Human One, the pioneer of the New Humanity. We learn to bear one another's burdens, to forgive one another, to be patient with each other's weaknesses and to seek our Lord, together, for healing, courage and power.