LOVE LIKE JESUS

Mt 13:10-17

Is it not funny, if not totally ironic, that when we say we are running out of words to describe something we end up using more words to define it through storytelling? But no matter how great a storyteller we are, there are simply things in life that cannot be fully put in words: the peace of a clear conscience, the joy of giving life, the gratitude after forgiveness, the wonder of God’s creation, the mystery of the Incarnation, the love of the Lord, the things of heaven.

Jesus is the Greatest Storyteller. He used parables to describe what the Kingdom of Heaven is all about. He resorted to parables not because He would run out of words each time He tried describing the Kingdom, but because the Kingdom is beyond our understanding. The Kingdom is understood only by the language used in that Kingdom. That language is love. And because our love remains imperfect, we cannot have a full comprehension of the Kingdom.

The more we love the more we understand the Kingdom. The better we love the better we understand the Kingdom. Do not love and we do not understand the Kingdom.

To share the Kingdom is to love. To describe the Kingdom is to love, too. To be in that Kingdom is still to love.

When we see but do not perceive and hear but do not understand, is it not because we do not love enough? Not loving shuts our eyes and dulls our hearing.

Love like Jesus – this is the key to understanding the Kingdom. This is also the secret in making others understand what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. When we run out of words to describe the Kingdom, we still have arms and hands to show what the Kingdom is all about. Those arms and hands are meant to serve, to hug, to bless, to give a pat on the shoulder, to extend in welcome, to shake another’s hand in reconciliation, to lead, to shield someone, to raise someone, to carry someone…to be extended and nailed on the cross.

Love more than explanation. Love more than words. Love like Jesus and we will not run out of words because Jesus is the Word.