Love Desires Union

Today is the Feast of St. Monica, and tomorrow, St. Augustine. Right now, for my Spiritual Theology class I am reading "Confessions", so hope to have an orginal post soon as I delve further into the text. For now, though, I thought perhaps it would be worthwhile to re-post this one from nearly a year ago. It contains a theme that has become woven into my life, the idea that we are pilgrims on earth...and indeed, we are only pilgrims.
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1. GREAT art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee,man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that Thou "resistest the proud,"(2) -- yet man, this part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee. Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee?

~ Confessions of St. Augustine

Flashback to a previous post, my question, an eternal one, "Is this it? Is this all there is? Do we really call this 'life'?"

Yes, my heart is restless, Lord, untill it rests in Thee.

I was listening to Relevant Radio one day, and the Spiritual Director on the show discussed this sense of restlessness. I have no idea what question was asked, but just the same, the answer is pertinent to us all: Our hearts are restless. Even when we have found our place on this earth, even when we are doing what we are called to do, there is a syndrome that haunts us. It is called by various names: "Itchy Feet", "The Grass is Greener", "Is this all there is?", and "The Path not Taken". But there is a reason for our disquietude. There is a reason we are always seeking what's over the next hill, what is just beyond the horizon, what might be behind the next ocean wave. There is a reason we cannot rest, no matter how content we may be. There is a reason we cannot live out our days without a sense of watchfulness, a sense of wondering about that fabled path not taken; because we are in exile.

Exile. We say the words in the Hail Holy Queen at the end of the rosary; "We, poor, banished, Children of Eve..." , and in the words at Advent in the hymn, "O Come o Come Emmanual," we sing,

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here...

We are a people in exile. We are a people created entirely for God, and we have, though our own sin, our own responsibility, cast ourselves into exile.

Our condition is unnatural, so it is right that we be so restless. It is right that we recognize that even as we fulfill what we can here on earth, that we recognize we are called to an ever higher purpose.

It is not our intellect that calls out for the next thing or that questions our fulfillment in life; it is our soul. Our soul recognizes in great anguish the division between God and man, and seeks to be unified. For we have been created for love, we have been created out of the very love of the Father, and we have been redeemed, in our sinfulness and imperfection by Jesus Christ. And we have been called to cooperate with the grace of the redemption, to accept the grace, and to aspire towards holiness. Why? Out of love. Just as we were created and redeemed out of love, we are called to the same sacrificial love. And that's not all.

Love desires union, and as long as we exist in this earthly exile, we do not have union. We can come close to union, but as long as we have not passed through the gates of death, we cannot experience that union. As long as we are held down by our sinful natures, we cannot experience that blessed union with God. Yes, we are to live out our exile, we are to continue to seek our union with God, we are to walk in holiness and continue to seek that perfection of charity.

We just have to recognize that we are restless because we have nowhere to rest. We are not home; this is not our home. Our home is in Heaven, our home is the Divine Processions, the Beautific Vision, and we will never be able to rest until finally we are released and called into the place God is preparing for us.

So, in this unnatural state of separation from God, we must withstand the restlessness, accept it as part of our exile...and realize that this is what reminds us that as we journey through life, we are forever looking for rest within the heart of our Savior.

Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in Thee. Amen.