“Your measure is not shadows, it is the fire of my love” (Inner Word).
Undoubtedly, we live in times marked by the spiritual shadow that hangs over the world. But this shadow must not cloud us or become the measure of our lives, even though it increases day by day. Again and again our heavenly Father exhorts us to lift up our eyes to Him and makes us understand that His response to man’s growing alienation will be an even greater love to save him.
If we contemplate the Cross of our Lord, we can see this clearly. To the terrible act of the crucifixion of the Son of God, an act of total and indescribable darkness, Jesus responds with these words: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).
This is the fire of our Father’s love that shines in Jesus: forgiving those who kill His Son, facing the abomination of hatred with the fervour of an indestructible love. This love is the standard by which we must govern ourselves. We must find this love and let it into our dark hearts. By welcoming it, we allow our shadow to be scorched by the inner light and fire of the Holy Spirit. “O most blessed Light divine, let Your radiance in us shine, and our inmost being fill” (Pentecost Sequence).
Then, too, we will not be swallowed up by the darkness that hangs over the world and the Church. With our eyes fixed on the burning love of our heavenly Father, we can already glimpse the victory over darkness, because “even the darkness is not dark to thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with thee” (Ps 139:12).