Holy Cross 
LOVE was our Lord’s meaning
Julian of Norwich, Showings
During these 50 days of Easter we are reminded weekly that the revealing of the person Jesus as the embodiment of God’s essential nature is Love. As the 14th century English mystic Julian of Norwich summarized the Good News: “Love was our Lord’s meaning.” We might paraphrase the Gospel of John, for example, as saying: “The very Word that was spoken when God created the world has taken flesh among us, indeed as one of us—and that Word is…Love.”
For in Jesus Christ we see to the heart of who we are—and to the heart of God. And what do we see? Nothing less than Love.
Jesus taught his followers, saying: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”. (John 13:34-35)
• Like it or not, love by definition is a team sport
• Love calls us into relationships, into community, into the church
• Love calls the community of the church to its vocation…love
Thomas Traherne, the 18th century English spiritual writer said it well: “Let me love very Person as Jesus Christ:
Meet his love, and thine, O Lord, In every person…
O Learn me this, and the whole is learned.
Learned me this, the Divine Art, And the life of God!
The church should be the place where we learn…and teach…about love”.
The Great Commission is Christ’s admonition to us to share with the world the Good News that in the person of Jesus Christ, God re-words the world. Where the governing word is hatred…a new word, Love. Where the dominant word is power…Love. Where the tempting word is greed…Love.
After three weeks of wonderful Resurrection appearances we now find ourselves approaching the fourth Sunday of Easter, preparing to receive the Good News from John 10:1-10. And what do we find? A provocative story of narrow gates and sheep and thieves-- no mention of the resurrection, as I whined and plopped down to study this familiar, yet off-putting text. And yet, the key may have come from Julian. She leaned into my soul, tickled my ear with a whisper…Love.
“See” you on Sunday @ 10 after Wayne’s Episcopal 101 @ 9 a.m.
Blessed love, Nancy+