The flow

As the Church approaches the end of the liturgical year, the first readings are selected from the end of the Bible: the complex and colorful book of Revelation.

It is a very dense book, piled thick with imagery and symbolism, and foreshadowing the end of the world (which could come at any time).

Yet amid all the complex images and words of doom, today’s first reading closes with a message that is very simple, clear, and important.

Yet I hold this against you:
you have lost the love you had at first.
Realize how far you have fallen.
Repent,
and do the works you did at first.
Revelation 2:4-5a

How these verses strike at the heart of so many of us!

Long ago we accepted Christ and have been trying to live a good Christian life since then, but along the way we may have made compromises or let our fervor become dissipated by minutiae or the imperfections of our fellow Christians. We may have admirably volunteered to serve but have since become distracted by personalities and even our own pride.

Whatever may have happened to us along the way, it is good for us to heed the word the Lord gives in today’s reading. It is good to set aside in our minds the “stuff” – even the holy stuff – that has been occupying it, to think back to the pure and simple love of God that was once overflowing in our hearts, and to ask the Lord to recharge that love within us, so that it may in turn reinvigorate our hearts, our minds, and all the stuff we do as we strive by his grace ever more perfectly to follow Christ.

Remember the love of Christ and let it flow anew.