Theology is a Love Story

When the planets have all been charted and occupied, the mysteries of God unveiled; when the wisdom of the wise has left no more questions and when all the exploring, discovering, inventing and dreaming are completed, when the maps of life are spread out across the fields of eternal evolution, and the full story of a trillion years of creation is spoken out for the first time, it will be finally clear that all growing is God’s growing, that all healing is God’s healing, that every age was an age of love.

We are living through momentous and divisive moments in the growth of Christianity, particularly as experienced in the Roman Catholic Church. We are called now to read and explore more widely, to discuss and ask questions, to test everything as much as we can. Ideally, such reflection should be a daily habit because love needs to be kept nourished and fresh. There is great excitement and fulfilment in filling our minds and hearts with such vital and delightful matters. This is what imagination is about at its most sublime level.
Through taking time to reflect, to meditate a little, to become more attentive to what is happening around us, personal and universal, we find new shapes, ideas and connections about the wider reaches of our faith and our understanding of the mystery of incarnation. It is about going more deeply into what we already know, rather than searching for new information; more about mindfulness and entering into our experiences than other-worldly propaganda.

Our perception of the mystery of life and love is heightened when we read in a contemplative way. Here and there we pause, we breathe, we wait. This inner resonance and intuition has to take time to reveal and clarify itself, and may require several re-readings. There are no answers – only to keep the channels open, to keep the conversation courageous. Gradually the veil parts – and we are astonished.
The excitement that pervades these pages springs from the belief that a divine healing power is already moving within each of us, and within all of creation. Once this revelation is taken seriously by the churches, and by ourselves, then our efforts for peace and equality, for justice and joy, will spread like wildfire. There is another way of living our days on this troubled earth. We will need many courageous conversations. There may be cul-de-sacs and open highways. And in all our efforts nothing goes to waste – every effort, every set-back, every daily disappointment and mistake, even temptations and sins – all are transformed. All belong. And all are safely harvested.

(From the preface to Horizons of Hope)