It is said that love is blind. Many of us have experienced this; a love that is so enthralled with someone, so head over heals with someone or something that we don’t notice the shadows, the red flags, the weaknesses of our beloved. The bliss and pleasure of falling in love makes us blind.

And yet there is a deeper kind of love, a love that is not blind, a love that is not limited to pleasure but can hold pain.

For in our gospel today (John 8 the woman who committed adultery), the one who is Love shows it to us. Christ’s love sees fully the accussed woman. He sees fully her shadows and sins but does not judge or dismiss her. His love also sees fully her becoming, her potential true humanity. Christ shows us a love that accepts and feels the pain of each others failings and weaknesses, while at the same time always holds each heart in its highest light.

And this love can live in us…

By practicing bearing with each others painful weaknesses without blame or condemnation, by practicing remembering the highest in each one of our brothers and sisters no matter how irritating they are.

This is Love. 

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by John 8