I came across a passage in the writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand which stunned me with its insight and beauty.
He was writing about love and how love opens up to us a deep knowledge of others. He wrote:
"All love implies a deeper understanding of the other person, a deeper grasp of his real being which shines but imperfectly through many veils and weaknesses. Nothing is more mistaken than the adage, ‘Love is blind.' Love is that which gives us sight ... (Marriage, The Mystery of Faithful Love, Sophia Press)
"Love is that which gives us sight!" I instinctively saw the truth of this statement. Love has a super-natural dimension, above that of our nature, giving us a new vision. Whenever we love another we see that person in a way that no other can, for we see them with something of the eyes of God. This is particularly true of the relationship of marriage in which a man and woman have given themselves away to one another.
As von Hildebrand continues: " Conjugal love reveals to us intuitively the whole being of the other in a mysteriously lucid unity ... the particular charm of his individuality as a whole, which permeates everything and characterizes the essence of his being."
We can live around people for years and see them only one-dimensionally. But when we take the step of choosing to love them all is changed. We then are able to behold their being in a fresh and more clear way.
But then you know this. How many times have you not seen a mother's tender love for a wayward adult child? Distressed by the child's actions, but having a higher vision, the mother continues to believe in and cherish her son or daughter. She sees deeply into the child what a casual outsider cannot comprehend.
Of course all of this is because when we love we enter into the internal life of the Holy Trinity. Marriage particularly is an echo of the love between the persons in God.
St. John opened this up for us when he taught, "God is love, and he who lives in love lives in God and God in him." (1John 4:16)
Love is therefore a "sacrament," a bridge that brings the divine into our lives, and which opens our eyes to behold the beauty of others. In love we truly enter into and build up the kingdom of God.
That is why the Lord, in his great commandment, instructed to us to "... love God above all things and our neighbor, as ourselves." (Mark 12:30) Love is truly the key to the Divine and indeed to the greatest mystery of the universe.
That key is available to everyone.
Father Donald Blickhan is parochial vicar at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Decatur.