Love Offends

Darkness cannot abide the Light. Those in darkness yearn for the light, but insofar as they have been touched by darkness they hate the light. And so it is that they both fear and yearn the light of Christ, attracted and repelled by the one thing that will save them.

For this reason Christ both attracts and repels for men loathe what they fear, even when what they fear is nothing that would wound them except in love.

Christ is light and love in such purest form that only the purest hearts can welcome him unreservedly. Yet those who reject him, reject him not out of malice, but out of hopelessness. They cannot do otherwise. Thus they nailed Pure Love to the cross.

Christ took pity on his murderers and so he willingly went to the limit of darkness and God-forsakenness so that he might release their prisoners. Pure Love drew out fear and hatred as if drawing poison so that those in their grasp may be freed.

So it is that as we deepen our life in Christ, we will also find ourselves sharing the fate of Christ. If we become Pure Love, we will be crucified because the light we bear stirs up fear and loathing. But if we can love as Christ did, we will gladly bear even innocent suffering because in dying we would be setting others free.