In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the map to a life overflowing with blissful love.
“While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.’
He replied, ‘Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.’”
Notice that Jesus speaks of “the word of God.” We frequently interpret this phrase too literally, as if God goes around making verbal pronouncements laden with burdensome commandments. Nothing could be further from the truth. God‘s word to us is always an invitation to love, not feebly but fiercely. All of our moral failures, our cruelty towards others and ourselves, and our wars are ultimately caused by a lack of love. I am not referring to love as eros or romance, and I am not referring to love as the bond between friends, as noble as that might be. I am underscoring divine love, an overflowing love that seeks the highest good of others. To be sure, God’s love is not tame, but wild, powerful, and consuming — and always in the service of our highest evolution. God’s love will pierce our hearts, not to punish us but to set us on fire. Only a pierced heart can love with abandon.
Jesus tells us that we are “blessed” when we hear and avail themselves of God’s word, which is God’s love. He says this because whatever we love becomes more real to us. Love awakens us to the reality of who we really are. The environment becomes real only when we see, nurture and love it. People only become real to the extent that we lovingly acknowledge them as unique beings made in the divine image. Angels become real to the degree we attune ourselves to their subtle presence with appreciation and love. Yogananda and Jesus become real in proportion to the attention and love we give them. God becomes real only when we take note of the divine presence in all aspects of our lives with love and gratitude. As God and guru become increasingly real, we drink from the fountain of life, and we are filled with the very fullness of God. Yogananda tells us,
“In the universal sense, love is the divine power of attraction in creation that harmonizes, unites, binds together. It is opposed by the force of repulsion, which is the outgoing cosmic energy that materializes creation from the cosmic consciousness of God. Repulsion keeps all forms in the manifested state through maya, the power of delusion that divides, differentiates, and disharmonizes. The attractive force of love counteracts cosmic repulsion to harmonize all creation and ultimately draw it back to God. Those who live in tune with the attractive force of love achieve harmony with nature and their fellow beings and are attracted to blissful reunion with God.
Beloved God,
Your divine love
Will pierce my heart
So that I may love with abandon.
