THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF LOVE

 A REFLECTION FOR THE 16TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

All the visible objects that surround us can be measured.  If we have a ruler or a measuring tape long enough, we can determine the three dimensions by which all things are measured—length, width and height.  With today’s technology, the proportions of even the distant stars and planets can be accurately determined.  But today, St. Paul provides us with food for thought as he describes the one thing that is beyond our human instruments of measurement.  It is the love of God.

With an intensity that is undeniable, St. Paul describes to the Ephesians how he falls to his knees to implore God for them, that they might be “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.”  And why is St. Paul so anxious for them to be thus strengthened?  He has one reason only, that they might be given the understanding “to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ.”  It will take such divine intervention to allow them to comprehend such things because Christ’s love is of a dimension beyond the physical domain.  Indeed, it “passeth knowledge.”  And what is beyond human knowledge but our faith, a faith in the things that are infinite, eternal and divine.

Like the Ephesians to whom St. Paul writes, we too find ourselves standing in awe at the concept that such immeasurable love exists.  We read in Holy Scripture about God’s love for us, we witness the acts of God in the Old Testament that prove his love for us, and we see the glorious acts of love displayed by his Son in the New Testament, culminating in the sight of a bleeding and suffering Saviour dying on the Cross for our sins.  But these are all merely outward signs of a divine Love that is so great, it goes far beyond anything we can comprehend with our finite minds.  It is a love that has no end, no limit to its breadth, and length, and depth, and height, a love that our own poor hearts can never adequately return, not even if we add up every measure of love ever felt by each single mortal who has breathed its spirit.  For mankind did not love before they were created; only a limited number of men and women will ever have existed; and most importantly, each man and woman is capable of only a limited amount of love.  No matter how much we ourselves, or even all mankind, might love God or our neighbor, it is as nothing when compared with the love God has for us.

God continues daily to show this love.  He is, as St. Paul says, “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”  For us to love God enough is impossible.  For us to try to love God perfectly is not only possible but the first and greatest of the commandments, that upon which all other laws, not to mention our salvation, depend, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”  With all our finite heart, our damaged soul, and our often wandering mind.  Our heart and mind can be measured.  They are physical attributes of our body and our personality.  But it is up to us to use every single inch of our heart and mind to love God as much as we possibly can.  We must give to God every ounce of love we have, and anything short of that is failure.  To deny God the slightest amount of love is an imperfection, and sometimes even a sin, for which we must beg God’s forgiveness and merciful loving-kindness.

It is only when we love “with all our soul” that we can come anywhere near returning to God the perfect love he desires and demands.  While our soul yet lives within our imperfect and finite bodies, however, our soul is hampered by the distractions of the devil, the world and our own fallen human nature.  We must yearn for the day when our soul will no longer be obstructed in this way, and will discover forever in heaven, through the beatific vision, that love of God that passeth knowledge, and can reflect it in our own love for God that will then also surpass all length and breadth and depth and height.