When two people feel loved by one another, especially during a romance that seems new and fresh to both, they begin to glow - physically, psychologically and spiritually. However, this radiance is more than a private event occurring between just the two of them. The glow each feels inspires them to act in ways that are loving toward everyone they encounter during the course of an ordinary day. When this occurs, every person caught up in this web of love then "catches" that radiance and begins to glow in turn. The repercussions are potentially endless, for all of these people then spread their glow to a multitude of others. Thus, a seemingly private romance, when seen for what it really is, has ripple effects that cause it to become a cosmic phenomenon.
The most amazing glow occurs, however, when we - during times of special solitude - are not aware that any particular person loves us. Rather, we intuit by faith that we are ALREADY loved. Here, our loveability is an ASSUMED reality rather than one that is perceived emotionally. Like mountains turning pink or lavender during evening alpenglow when the sun is nowhere in view - at least from the perspective of the observer standing below - we begin to fluoresce in the knowledge that we are loved. And this radiance occurs even though the One who loves us - i.e., the spiritual "Sun" - is too close and too deep to be experienced on an emotional level. As a medieval Cistercian monk named Gilbert of Hoyland once said: "Because you love, you can assume that you are always loved."
In fact, every challenge to the fact that we are loved - either in the form of interior or exterior suffering - becomes an opportunity for us once again to reaffirm the reality that we are indeed loved and loveable. It's as though the Divine Presence who indwells our attitude of faith says to us at a very deep level: "Tell me, how WOULDN'T I love you!" During moments of darkness and doubt, all we seem to hear is the "wouldn't" part. However, when faith reasserts itself, we realize once again that this "wouldn't" is part of the indwelling Divine's playful affirmation of love: "How WOULDN'T I love you!" Or, we might think of our experience of doubt as a momentary misinterpretation of the Divine Beloved exclaiming to us (with a twinkle in the eye): "You're not attractive, ARE you!" What this really means, of course, is "You are VERY attractive!" But it has to be expressed in a negative form since our loveability is actually an assumed reality. In this case, paradoxically, the One who causes us to glow is intimately present in what seems at first to be a negation. What a trickster the Beloved is!
Photo: Alpenglow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains; Yosemite National Park, CA; July 27, 2012
