7: What Does Love Look Like?

7

What Does Love Look Like?

Letters to Ascended Master

St. Padre Pio,

Monday, August 1, 2011

7:40 A. M.

Dear Padre,

          I’ve just been re-reading the chapter “What Does Love Look Like” in the book In the Spirit of Happiness, by the Monks of New Skete, because I wanted to refresh my memory so I could write a spiritual musing on this fascinating question, but for some reason I feel like sharing my thoughts on love with you; hence my letter this morning.

          I can’t get the memory of my neighbor’s three young boys, especially the two youngest ones, out of my mind. The boys came up with their mother to their family cottage next door (the cottage is shared by her two siblings and young families), but the boys spent much of their time on our front deck with me.

          I love reading on our front deck, so I’ve been spending a lot of time there in the summers since my bypass operation three years ago. Before my bypass I had to work my trade of drywall taping and painting because summer was my busiest time of year, but I’m only picking up small jobs now and I spend many summer afternoons on my deck reading books that I’m called upon to read—like In the Spirit of Happiness, which I felt compelled to read for my book of letters to you, Padre; so the boys would see me on the deck and come over to visit, and talk, and share, and play.

          I mention this because it was like the boys, especially the two young ones, Luca (six) and Christian (two), just couldn’t get enough of my energy. They wanted to touch me and sit on me and be around me. I said to Penny, “I’ve got my spiritual gravitas back!”

 That’s how I used to attract children when I was loaded with spiritual energy when I was consumed by my spiritual quest for my true self and employed every technique I could to gather and collect spiritual energy, because I had learned that to be my true self I had to grow in my true self, and to grow in my true self I had to harness all the spiritual energy that I could get and I harnessed so much energy that I attracted children like flowers attracted bees. One seven year old boy even came down to my house one evening after dinner and knocked on our door and asked my mother if I could come out to play!

This was the most endearing gesture of innocence that I have ever experienced, and this is what the young boys next door reminded me of every time they walked over to be with me on the front deck. But so intrigued was I by their attraction to my energy that I asked Penny, “Why does my energy attract children and repel most adults?”

“It’s their innocence,” she said. “They don’t have anything to hide from you. Most adults have something to hide, and they can’t stand to be around you because your energy threatens their falseness.”

I had to agree with her. In fact, something you said at one of my spiritual healing sessions confirmed this. Remember? I asked you why I affected one member of my spiritual community the way I did. “She has a hate on for me like you wouldn’t believe,” I said, and you replied that it was because I saw something in her that she did not want to face up to, and I threatened what she pretended to be—i.e., a kind, and loving person. Which brings me right back to the theme of this letter—what does love look like?

“Love looks like generosity,” said Father Laurence. “It spends itself willingly (and wisely) for others, be it with time, attention, money, or simply concern” (In the Spirit of Happiness, 255). That’s the face of love that I would like to explore in my letter this morning, and the woman that I threatened is a perfect example of the kind of person who makes out like she’s all about love but her behavior speaks otherwise. 

Didn’t Jesus say, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them?” (Math. 7: 20). Well, I listened to what this woman had to say and then observed her behavior. She loved to humiliate her husband in public at our spiritual functions until I finally called her up on it, telling her to keep her marital dynamic private and not bring it to our functions; and I also told her how gauche it was to bring her own food into a restaurant, which she often did after one of our spiritual functions. As the saying goes, she did not walk her talk. I saw through her, and she hated me for it.

Of course, you told me to be more accepting, kinder in my response to her, and not embarrass her the way I did by challenging her, and I took your advice. Not that I wanted to, but because I knew that this was all part of my own spiritual healing—which culminated in your devastating humility slaying my overwhelming spiritual conceit!

In any event, the point I want to make is that the face of love that I wanted to explore this morning speaks to the generosity of love, which is a face that I’m very familiar with because I learned a long time ago that giving of oneself—be it in time, concern, or coin—is one of the most satisfying ways to grow spiritually, and one of the most obvious.

I can always tell if a person has love in their heart by how they give of themselves, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the cheaper one is (in their time, concern, or coin) the less love they have in their heart. For me, this is a mathematical certainty!

That’s all for today, Padre. I hope I didn’t invite a new spiritual lesson here, as I often do when I speak my mind so frankly.

I remain,

Your faithful companion,

Orest