Looking For Love?

‘You Can’t Catch Me …’ by Endless Beauty

The Gingerbread Men Tell Me

The Love Cycle Is Invisible

08 February – This is the pastoral text of Fr Reuter: Juan Diego, the Mexican who met Mama Mary at Guadalupe, was poor. But she loved him with a special love. The Filipino is poor, but Mama Mary loves the Filipinos as her children. This one sets me into thinking: ‘Why is it that it is only the poor to whom Mama Mary reveals herself?’ My own answer to my question is this: Actually, she reveals herself to everyone. But only the poor sees her because only the poor believe enough in miracles. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God.’ I believe in miracles.

I like to eat and eat, but I have chosen the image you see because it inspired me to think about love, not because each of these gentlemen bread looks good enough to eat. I have been looking for love and found it where I can’t see it in fact.

Looking for love? If you look and look, you can’t find love; if you search and search, you can’t discover love. Love is not for looking. Love is not for discovering. If you don’t look with your eyes, then you’ll find love. The love of Mama Mary is like that, I believe. It goes beyond the surface. To truly understand and appreciate it, you have to look deeper.

Looks depends on the lover, too, as this image along with the note that accompanies it demonstrates. Endless Beauty looks at the Gingerbread Men she has just baked and sees wickedness in them. She says:

Yes, these are meant to be gingerbread men. They look evil. Actually, I ‘know’ they are evil.

And yet when I look at them, I don’t see any sinister spirit – I see soft smiles: notice the up-curved mouths? And so I must say that love depends on the looker, the way she looks at him, the way he looks at her.

A lovely way of looking at all that is this: Love is something you can’t catch with your eyes. Why? Because love is not what you see; love is not the product; it is the service – Love is the act, the loving itself, the giving and the receiving and the giving back. Love makes the world go round only if it is a cycle, only if there is a giving back, which completes it. The Love Cycle, if I may call it that. How do you break the cycle? Love stops when there is no giving back.

So, give back love!

 

Which gives me an idea: Hate is the act, the hating itself, the giving and the receiving and the giving back. The Hate Cycle. How do you break the cycle? Hate stops when there is no giving back.

So, don’t give back hate!

And another idea: War is the act, the making of the war itself, the giving and the receiving and the giving back. The War Cycle. How do you break the cycle? War stops when there is no giving back.

So, don’t give back war!

And still another idea: Peace is the act, the keeping of the peace itself, the giving and the receiving and the giving back. The Peace Cycle. How do you break the cycle? Peace stops when there is no giving back.

So, give back peace!

So, on Valentine’s Day and everyday before and after, I wish you love. I wish you peace.

Mother Mary Comes To Me

‘Mama Mary’ by Mattie & Den

Terms Of Endearment

07 February – This is the pastoral text of Fr Reuter: The people of other nations call the Mother of God ‘the Blessed Virgin Mary.’ But the Filipinos call her ‘Mama Mary.’ She is God’s mother, and their mother. I chose this Flickr image because, really, the Filipinos look at Mother Mary differently from other peoples. When they say ‘Mama Mary,’ they mean it in a different way from what you will call your mother, and you know it. While the Beatles were very irreverent (that’s why they were very creative), I think that this Beatles’ song (Lennon/McCartney), captures much of that term of endearment that Filipinos have for the Virgin Mary:

Let It Be

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is
Still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be. Yeah
There will be an answer, let it be.

And when the night is cloudy,
There is still a light that shines on me,
Shine on until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.