How far will love go?

How far will Love go?

Not love as warm sentimentality, or the fleeting spark of romance, or even the enduring bond shared by friends, family or kindred spirits, but the Love that calls our name at birth, the Love that will one day summon us across the threshold of death, and the Love that calls to us now in this moment and all living moments no matter how great or terrible. The Love that is of God. The Love that is God.

How far will Love go?

Will love be present when times are tough and when there is little to confirm that its efforts will be successful or effective?

In Christ, God proclaims "Yes." Love will not fade in the difficult moments, in our experiences of deepest wounding and loss, and it can even redeem them in the end.

Will Love still be there even when people are indifferent to it, even when we deny its power?

In Christ, God proclaims "Yes." Love will not falter when we ignore it or seek other solutions that fall short in the end. It will keep calling to us in mercy.

Will Love endure even when the powers of evil are gathered against it? Even when it must face the harshest violence, the most bitter betrayal, and the deepest loneliness?

In Christ, God proclaims "Yes." Love will endure in all of this. Even here it will speak words of forgiveness and shine with a light of hope.

This night is the night when we are asked to remember and rejoin our lives to the great open-hearted "Yes" of God. The cross marks a great and unsettling disclosure of just how far the Love of God will go. And as we will celebrate in the days to come, Love will go further than this.

For now, however, we dwell in this night, we kneel at the cross with Mary, we remember the sorrow and fear of his friends, and we proclaim that here - even here - God says "Yes."

May the Love of God,

the open heart of Jesus,

and the breath of the Holy Spirit,

call to each of us this night.

And may we respond

with our own "Yes" to Love.

AMEN