We witness it in the high-schooler that longs to be asked out on just one date. We see it in the teenager waiting to be a friend with someone on Facebook. It’s deepened in a touch of the hand or a walk in the sunset. It’s glimpsed in the catch of an eye as he passes by on the street. It’s found in tears formed in front of the perfect diamond from the perfect man. It’s the response to a baby’s cry during the night with a comforting caress. It’s seen at the bedside when the tubes and wires flow across his body. It’s witnessed at the grave as the last prayers are spoken. It’s the love that has been given to us by the Holy Spirit that forever goes out seeking its home. It’s a love that has its source in God, and therefore our love can be a sign of God’s own eternal love.
This Love is perfected when it find its proper home.
John is 33. Standing on his shaky legs in the smoke-filled room tears began to fill up his eyes. Hardly able to utter the words, he begins to speak: “Most of my life has been a waste. I left home around 16 and completely abandoned my family. I didn’t need that hell any longer. I went from city to city searching out a home, longing for acceptance. Then I took my first hit. That was the beginning to the end. Nothing could be as good as that feeling, I thought. I had found my true love. The night it all came crashing down it took three doctors, four nurses, and a crash cart to bring me back. Only in almost losing my life did I lose the habit. I’ve been clean now for almost four months. I’m no longer running in life. I’ve learned to love myself, a few friends, and even God. I’ve even started going to Church. I think I’ve finally found my home.”
Love in John’s life longed to find its proper home. But abusive relationships, running, and drugs could not perfect the love in his heart. His love only found its proper place in healthy relationships, and ultimately in God. In a similar way to John, the love of God goes out searching for a resting place. God loves all of creation, from the trees to the flowers, to the birds and especially all of us here. Yet these objects cannot perfect God’s love. God needs another who is equal to him and deserving of his supreme love. Only in another divine person does God’s love find its perfection. Therefore, God the Father loves God the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and their love is made perfect in this eternal exchange.
Love is perfected when it finds its proper home.
This love that is perfected produces total happiness.
Nine months ago Jack heard Cindy shouting with joy from the bathroom. After trying for years, Cindy had finally become pregnant. Since then time was occupied with painting rooms, buying toys and clothing, and worrying about everything—even worrying about worrying. They were now in the hospital. Hours passed. Tears poured down. Cindy, covered in sweat and screaming from the top of her lungs continued to push. Then there was a silence. Jack’s heart nearly burst in anticipation. A cry broke through the deafening silence. A baby boy had been born. The doctor handed the boy to Jack. In that moment, if just for a moment, as he looked at his wife and held the boy he had helped to create, Jack’s heart overflowed with love, and time disappeared in a glimpse of total happiness.
In a similar way, just as Jack’s love for his wife and child produced a glimpse of total happiness, the embrace of love between God the Father and God the Son produces happiness. Only, this embrace is not momentary, it is eternal and everlasting. And this embrace does not produce just a glimpse of happiness; it produces pure, supreme and total happiness.
This love that is perfected produces total happiness.
The happiness of perfect love must be shared with others.
No one could understand the shame he had felt. The Apostle Peter looked out over the sea, hardly interested in his breakfast. There Jesus sat, across the fire from him. The same Jesus he had denied three times, the same Jesus he had thought was lost forever. Now he had risen; yet Peter could not confront his sorrow. And then Jesus spoke to him. In three simple statements of love the same man he denied at his darkest hour had forgiven him. It was almost as if Peter’s mistakes simply floated away with the smoke of the fire, off over the sea. The happiness that Peter experienced was indescribable. In fact, it would be this happiness that Peter would try share with others the rest of his life. This happiness would be made perfect in being received by the many people who would listen to Peter’s words about Jesus. It would be this happiness that would lead him to his own martyrdom.
Just as Peter had to share the happiness he experienced from the love of Christ, so too are the Father and the Son impelled to share their happiness with another. To complete the perfect exchange of love and perfect the happiness experienced, the Father and Son share this with God the Holy Spirit. In an eternal dance, embrace and exchange, love is perfected within God, this love produces happiness, and this happiness is fully shared.
The happiness of perfect love must be shared with others.
In our past, during this present, and in to the future, our love will always seek to finds its perfect home. In certain moments, when that love has found its home, we can experience a bliss that leaves us breathless. Regaining our breath, we are able to share this experience with others. As our lives journey in love, let us remember that we share in the love of a divine Trinity, whose love has been perfected in an eternal exchange, and whose happiness continues to be eternally available not only within the Trinity, but also to us.
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