I’ve been thinking about love a lot in this season of love and light.  One would think that after all this time in human history, given all the advances we’ve made as a species, that we’d be so much better at love as an evolving force.  We have been blessed with so many theologians, writers, philosophers who have expounded prodigiously on the subject, and the divine incarnation of love’s essence has entered into our history…and still we can’t seem to tame this unwieldy force.  On my wedding day, my father included this quote from Teilhard de Chardin in his homily “Someday, after mastering the wind, the tides, the waves and gravity, we shall harness for God, the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world we will have discovered fire”  I wonder at that phrase, and have struggled with its implication since that day.  I understand that love is kind and slow to anger, and the rest of the qualities espoused to it by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians.  I think more importantly though, is what the gospel writer John says about God being love, and that it is also the opposite of fear.  I think that’s the key, to learn to be more fearless in relationships…and that is different for every individual.  For me, it is to believe that first and foremost that I deserve to be loved in a way that defies gravity and that I have the potential to love the same way.  That is the relationship that I have with God…so it with that fire that I approach this season of light, and pray that I glow with that force in my heart.  Blessings to all of you and your families….