Love: The Big Secret

The mystics, and those like Moses, Jesus, and John the divine, who personally claim to know God, are always aware that they have been let in on a big and wondrous love secret. Anyone not privy to an inner dialogue—that is, some kind of an I / Thou relationship—would call such people presumptuous, emotional, foolish, and even arrogant. How could they presume to claim an actual union with the divine? But this is without doubt God’s secret, “in which all the jewels of wisdom and knowledge are hidden" (Colossians 2:3). The insiders know that "anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never know God, because God is love" (1 John 4; 7–8). Such an amazing but seldom-quoted line lets you in on the big secret and all also makes it universal and available to all. –Richard Rohr

Love is the overarching theme of the Gospels. In God’s love for us being made manifest in Jesus Christ (see John 3:16); in the Greatest Commandment, love God and love others (see Matthew 22:34-40); and emphasized in Jesus’ teachings to the extent that we even love our enemies (see Matthew 5:43-48); Jesus even declaring “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Love is the big secret. If we want to walk more closely with God, love is the path we must take.