The Taffy Heart

We all have friends and family members who live in our hearts in a way that is so real that we feel totally connected. It is as if when they move, we quiver or if they reach out an arm, we are there. In that heart-space is a oneness that belies our separateness; in that heart-space, we recognize that we are bound by a love that is at the core of who we are.

Right now, I see this tug of the heart playing out in a very public way because yesterday was moving day for the priests of our diocese. My parish has a new pastor who has been torn from a congregation many hours away and our retiring pastor of 17 years is moving on to his new assignment. Fr. Jim's presence lingers even as we change the picture on the wall of the Commons to welcome Fr. Chuck. Hearts across Virginia are like emotional taffy which is being pulled to bridge the physical distance brought by the change.

We all experience this tug of the heart when we love someone. To the other is where our thoughts stray; the other is where our feelings exist and our desires live. When we love, the unity is palpable. We may think we love separately, each with our own special someones, but in that experience we recognize that same love occurring all around us: Love and the world loves with you. We are all drops of water in the same ocean.

If God is Love, then it is God who is joining us. The omnipresent God is the web of our existence. We can't move without someone else being affected. We are connected, a cosmic body, joined by love and moving towards our common end. We are like a planet caught in its gravitational journey around its mother star. We are part of that gravity, all drawn to the center, to the God who keeps all of us in motion. To separate ourselves from each other or from God is like Saturn trying to break away from its rings. It is impossible; we are joined by a web of love, even if, at times, we don't feel it.

When we are hurt or angry at others, we fool ourselves into thinking that we can drive away the pain by severing our ties, but the gravity is too strong. The more we push away, the more the other is imprinted within us because the struggle is so great. We are trying to fling ourselves into space, but breaking the bonds of love is impossible; the person will always be with us in our memories and in our pain.

God is our core and there is no place where God begins or ends. That makes you me and me you and all of us are one in God. That means the panhandler who wants money for a bottle as well as Mother Teresa and the Dali Lama. In our empathy, we can change the world by spreading love through the underground connection deep within even if it is thwarted in the visible sphere.

The Kingdom comes down to this: Faith that the web of Love is true, Hope that it will make a difference and Love that stretches like taffy to touch all wherever they may be.