We live in an infinite environment of boundless love.
Love is our destiny … the only way to actual fulfillment.
In 1977 the 26th Pocket Book edition of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning was published. The original and all subsequent editions contained this introduction to Dr. Frankl, “Dr. Viktor E. Frankl is Europe’s leading psychiatrist. His new theory, Logotherapy, has rocketed him to fame as the leader of the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy and the most significant modern thinker in the field.”
The book is in part a story of personal torture and deprivation in Nazi concentration camps over a period of three years. It is, as well, a living verification of the strength of the human spirit when nurtured by “closely guarded images of beloved persons, by religion, by a grim sense of humor, and even by glimpses of the healing beauties of nature – a tree or a sunset.”
One particularly poignant recollection is of a time of meditation during a torturous march to the day’s worksite. Dr. Frankl writes, “Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: the salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way – an honorable way – in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words ‘the angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.’”
“Perpetual contemplation” is not a particularly modern idea. Nor is it something we commonly do. Images on the screens of our televisions change in “nano seconds.” We, as one pundit put it, “pace in front of our microwaves.” Boredom is epidemic. There is so much variety. Buying something as simple as bread can be stressful. There are so many varieties. Our days are cluttered with an endless array of diversions. Much of our attention is diverted to incidentals. But, when Dr. Frankl’s focus was narrowed, by deprivation, to the quintessential, he understood the value of love and could imagine being “perpetually” enthralled with contemplation of the “beloved.”
The greatest of all loves is the love of the Creator God in giving us life and the timeless gift of not only being loved but loving. His love is, finally, ultimately expressed in the Christ; the “Son of Man.” To ponder this love with passionate desire to know it; to embrace and be embraced by it; will take us to a place where we are “lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.” Perfect “love” is the “warm glow” of that glory! It is the great and never ending glory of all time, and of all eternity!
Lord, create for the eyes of our spirits a true image of you, our most beloved. Quiet us. Focus our attention to a fine vision which, contemplated, makes vivid the grandeur of your love. Stir in us a love like your own for yourself our “beloved.” We would not dare to ask for suffering though it is, so often, the only way to get our attention. But we humbly accept the means you choose to turn our eyes to you. We plead for a clear vision. Let us be enthralled by the wonder of you. Give us such fulfillment in the vision that all other realities pale in its light. “Show us your glory, Oh loving Father!”
Oh Lord, our God, you are great. Immeasurable in your person, you are infinite. Timeless, all knowing, you are without limit. Invincible, all power is yours. Indescribably magnificent, “wonderful beyond description too marvelous for words,” you are glorious! Terrified in your powerful presence we fall on our face before you. Then, as we lie broken and trembling at your feet you, our God, stoop to where we’ve fallen. At great personal cost you enter our experience, love us, and lift us up.
Lord Jesus you have loved us no matter where love took you. Despite what it required - even your life - you gave. You loved us without condition. No one has loved us like this. “There” really is “no love like your love.” You who are, “from before there was time,” the source of all power and all things, the God before whom “mountains crumble,” even “melt like wax,” have come to where we are and loved us like this.
Such love has stirred us. Because you’ve loved us; called us your beloved, we love you. You are, now, our beloved! We surrender ourselves to this love now. We welcome its growing influence. May our hearts be changed until no thing, nor no one, matters more than you. May we find that your promise of “life” is fulfilled in our surrender to you. “Lost in perpetual contemplation of you,” may we find our true and ultimate fulfillment in the love you inspire for yourself and our fellows. AMEN!
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