Love All Around
Love is present around us as long as we open our eyes to enjoy and revel in it. Despite life’s set backs, we experiences God’s love in the midst of our suffering, we just need to be open to receiving the Gift of Jesus’ love. This blogcast explores “Love All Around" from the Ad Infinitum blog, written and read by Brian Rhude.
St. Vincent Pallotti said, “Seek God and you will find God. Seek God in all things and you
will find God in all things. Seek God always and you will always find God.” When I was in high
school, this was used as a call and response to get the lunchroom or assembly to be quiet. In
hindsight, it is pretty sad that we took such beautiful words and reduced them to a bit of a Pavlovian
response to get high schoolers to zip it, but I digress. At the heart of Pallotti’s sentiment is this: God
is everywhere (this is the Jesuit side of Pallotti coming out) and all we have to do to find him is open
our eyes and our hearts and look for him.
I have been sitting with this strange scene that is a mix of a drama movie and spiritual
writing. I imagine two people talking after some form of suffering, maybe it is raining for cinematic
effect, with one looking at the other and saying, “how can you endure _____ and still see love?” The
other person, after a pause, responds, “how can I not? It is like opening your eyes on a clear day and
trying not to see the sunlight. All there is around me is love. Every color, shape, and composite thing
radiates the love of God. It is inexplicable, but I can’t really explain seeing the light either- it simply
is. And so too, in an even deeper way, is the infinite love of God.” I have not played out the rest of
the script, but I do not think I will write the whole movie anyways.
We live in, to say it in highly a-theological language, a pretty messed up world. War, violence,
natural disasters, poverty, and so much more make it hard to watch the news and, somewhat
understandably, hard for people to look at that seemingly endless void of evil and see a God, let
alone the Christian God who is infinite love. And yet, as friends and followers of Jesus, we are
invited to open our eyes and to see love all around us. Yes, it is difficult, but it is necessary when our
context is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In the last few weeks, I have faced the loss of a friend, accompanied some of my students
through their own loss, and more of the normal ups and downs of life. It has not been easy, and yet
when I open my eyes, once the dust settles and I have a chance to remember who I am and where I
am, all I see is love. I am aware, though, that this is a conscious choice. The easiest thing is to see the
suffering and to sit in it. As I said in my last post, suffering is a guarantee in life. If that is all we see,
life looks bleak and even meaningless. If we see love, we realize that suffering can have meaning in
our lives and that death and sin do not have the final say. Today and every day, regardless of where
you find yourself, what you endure, and how you are feeling, let us follow Pallotti’s model and seek
God, because when we do, we will realize that he is all around us and the only thing we can see if we
choose to look for Him.
Author:
Brian Rhude is the Project Coordinator for the Catholic Apostolate Center where he works in developing Center programming, assists in updating and creating new resources on the Center's website, collaborates on the development of social media content, and provides other services and collaborates including participation at and facilitation of various events and conferences.
Resources:
Listen to On Mission: Talking to Children About Suffering
On Mission: St. Vincent Pallotti
Browse Self Care Resources
Read the Ad Infinitum blog
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