Love: The Fire of Transformation
Scientist and theologian Ilia Delio presents images of fire to describe God’s presence in her life:
As a Franciscan on the edge of religious life, my experience of human love and divine love revealed to me a deep passion of life at the heart of life, a passion that enkindled my heart; in truth, I wanted to love God without measure.
Love is a fire of transformation that constantly needs wood to keep the fire alive. Real fire is destructive; throw yourself into a fire and you will be destroyed. God’s fire is destructive too because it can swiftly eliminate all self-illusions, grandiose ideas, ego-inflation, and self-centeredness. Throw yourself into the spiritual fire of divine love and everything you grasp for yourself will be destroyed until there is nothing left but the pure truth of yourself. [1] …
Deep within the cave of my heart, a depth that belongs to me alone, I recognize a fire that burns brilliantly and glows with warmth. Through that glowing fire I see the outline of a face, the face of Christ, but I also see my face, and then I begin to see Christ’s face as my face. Sometimes I cannot tell Christ’s face from my own face, and all at once I recognize a single face whose eyes are looking inward and outward. The word “God” simply doesn’t capture this infinite depth of my soul that stretches toward an endless horizon. By its sheer unlimited being I know it must be divine life, because it is life other than my own and yet entangled with my own life. [2]
Delio witnesses the fire in her heart as a universal invitation for each of us to be transformed:
Every human life is the cosmos winding its way into the future. Every life makes a difference to the life of the whole. I have come to know that the fire in my heart is the fire in the heart of the universe and that its flames will not be extinguished. This fire will destroy that which is not God and forge what is God into an ever-radiant new presence of God because God is forever being born within us. In this life, at this moment, I allow all that has shaped my life to be summed up in this seamless mysterious breath of life. I let go over and over again and jump into the lap of God’s loving embrace. Every moment I am falling in love with God. For God knows me in a deep way, a way that I still hardly know myself; and it is this endless inscrutable depth where love burns brightly that I learn to trust my thoughts, my words, my actions…. I have a mission because every person has a mission—to be the truth of who they are so that God can be God in them. The path to truth demands patience and trust, and this path is an open road within every human heart. [3]
FEB 13, 2024
Loss & Laughter
Van Gogh’s painting of a large Bible open to Isaiah 53, the prophetic chapter about the Messiah’s suffering, and a small French novel by Emile Zola, The Joy of Living, appears to be a contrast between tradition and modernity. In fact, Vincent saw Zola’s novel about the sacrificial love of a mistreated servant girl as a contemporary retelling of Jesus’ self-sacrifice. Far from a rejection of faith, the painting was van Gogh’s way of showing how the example of Christ’s love can still be found in the world today.But the painting also celebrates a central paradox of Christian faith—that through experiencing loss the servant of God actually discovers a greater joy. The final sentence in The Joy of Living reads, “She had stripped herself of everything but happiness rang out in her clear laugh.” Likewise, Isaiah 53 vividly describes the sorrow and suffering of Jesus, but van Gogh understood that on the other side of his suffering was elation. This, according to the writer of Hebrews, is why Jesus accepted his destiny. He endured the cross, despising the shame, “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2). Even as Jesus was betrayed, humiliated, and tortured, somehow he remained focused on the glory that awaited him. He knew he would be exalted to the right hand of the Father and given the name above all names.
During Holy Week we rightly focus on the suffering and humiliation of Jesus, but we must not overlook what the Bible clearly says motivated Jesus. He persevered through it all because he knew a greater delight awaited him. Jesus accepted suffering not because he suppressed his desires but because he sought to maximize them. This week is about sorrow, yes, but it is a sorrow pregnant with joy. That’s a paradox Vincent learned from studying Scripture, recognized in French literature, and one he would hold to throughout his life.After being dismissed as a missionary and losing his dream of becoming a pastor, van Gogh described the painful season to his brother in a letter: “As molting time—when they change their feathers—is for birds, so adversity or misfortune is the difficult time for us human beings. One can stay in it—in that time of molting—one can also emerge renewed.” Vincent recognized that suffering was not an abnormality to be avoided, but a part of God’s grace to be accepted. It’s how transformation happens and new life is created. Like Jesus, it’s when we surrender our immediate desires for comfort, safety, or acceptance that we discover the secret to attaining our ultimate desire—union with God himself.
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