Virtue of Love – Reflection on Luke 12:1-7
I am sure you have your own journey stories of how the virtue of unconditional love can penetrate our mind, body, and soul. A few days after 9/11, I silently walked into the forest and found a large rock to pray for those lost and their families. After an unusually intense prayer time, a previously unknown wrong I had done suddenly came to mind. I looked as far as I could see into the forest and said I was sorry. I asked my parish Priest about it, and he said that type of sin and how I handled it was more normal than I thought. He felt I should accept the light within these whispers, encouraging me to keep doing these walks because it was a sign of a cleansing process for the virtue of love. I have lost track over the years of how many walks and sins surfaced and continue to do so with the routine. It has never become easy because the most challenging part of a step-filled journey away from sin and towards love comes with a deep sense of remorse, guilt, and the need to purge and confess sin to God. While cathartic, participating in earthly purgatory requires commitment. A benefit is we begin to wonder and appreciate the previously little-used gifts of Piety and Fear of God. Filial fear and humility make us not want to offend. We understand it should be evident that God knows our secrets. I have no doubt God wants the space they occupy in our being to be instead be filled with the virtue of love.
Jesus Discourses with His Disciples by James Tissot (full-resolution painting)
More details are available on the Brooklyn Museum website.
Additional Ordinary Time Reflections
Luke 12:1-7 Scripture*
Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered by the thousands, so that they trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. 2 Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.
Exhortation to Fearless Confession
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. 7 But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Additional Thoughts
Thank you for meditating on this Gospel and reading this Lectio Divina on Luke 12:1-7 Reflection – Virtue of Love.
Would you like to contribute related thoughts to these Lectio reflections on the Gospel readings? Since Lectio is not the only contemplative payer style, others might appreciate these types of expressions in this ministry. Do you see God’s grandeur everywhere and unconditionally enjoy sharing the love of Christ that you have inside? Are you willing to be anonymous in what you would share? If so, email me.
Prayer for young families:
Lord, let the young families of our communities get to know your joy, peace, comfort, and love despite worldly distractions.
Attributions
*This site has written permission to use the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) Bible Luke 12 Bible passage.
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