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The above quotation grabbed my attention. I believe grace is ubiquitous and love is actually all around - but reality does not always feel gracious and loving to me. The lynchpin in the quotation for me is “it must be received.” I began to wonder why I might not be able to receive grace or love.
Here’s what I came up with - maybe I am receiving grace, but I don’t recognize it. Maybe I expect grace to look and feel a certain way - and that is not the form in which grace is coming to me. Grace is everywhere and I am receiving it - I am just blind to grace’s flow.
And why don’t I see love abounding? I came up with two responses to that question. First I think I avoid love. Love is, after all, risky. Loving involves risking rejection or loss, and almost surely brings pain in its wake. I believe I have developed some defense mechanism to shelter my heart. Second, I am convinced that my understanding of love does not match up with Divine Love. My notion of love is influenced by my own personal experiences - and what was portrayed in the Hollywood movies of my youth. The inklings I get of Divine Love are much more spacious, much more wondrous that any ideas I hold.
So I am basically blind to much of the graciousness flowing through my life and either afraid of or have no clue of the nature of Divine Love. Jesus might say I don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear. But I can celebrate! That is what Eucharist has taught me. When I listen carefully and lovingly to another’s story, when I share a meal - then my eyes and ears are opened. I can see, hear, feel and trust that grace is present, that love is bounding around, and that I am participating in the sacrament of everyday life.