Love and Creation

Much to my chagrin, it’s been a while since I’ve thought about the Transformation Wheel. There is much there that I wish to delve into.

The Wheel itself is rooted in a study group I was part of as a supplement to my Secular Franciscan formation.  My spiritual adviser, Sr. Agnes Marie, was fond of a book called Franciscan Prayer, by Ilia Delio, which I would recommend to anyone seriously interested in prayer.  It is not for beginners, but it is approachable enough to be useful to anyone committed to the subject.

Sister organized a group that met once a month to reflect upon and share insights related to the book.  We typically covered a chapter a month, although a couple extended longer.  The group was half Secular Franciscans, and half from the local community of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.  It took about a year to cover the entire book.

Sister was responsible for submitting a paper on each chapter to an overseer somewhere, and she used our notes to assemble her paper.  I think this was in exchange for a deal on the materials.  At the end, Sister asked us to write a summary of our experience to help with her final submission.

As I pondered, I hit upon the Transformation Wheel as the best way to express my summary.

As this took shape, my first impulse was to suggest Love as the fuel that fed the engine.  But upon further consideration, I began to understand that Love had a bigger role than that. To assign Love the role of fuel is to improperly isolate and compartmentalize it.  Even though Love occupies one spoke in the graphic, it would be better to think of Love as the sheet the graphic is written on.

To take that metaphor further, think of Love as the environment we live in.  It’s the air we breathe, it’s the water we drink, and it’s the food that sustains it.  It is omnipresent, unavoidable, and all encompassing.

If I can be so bold, I will assert that love is the reason for creation.

God created this world, and placed humans on it, and gave humans free will, for the express purpose of expanding the net amount of love in the universe.  Then God sent Jesus into the world so that we would have a perfect example of how to love.

What brings more love into the world than the creation of a new life?

Conversely, what diminishes love more in the world than the violent taking of a life?

Love and creation are intimately linked.

Freedom enables love.  Without it, love could not exist.  This is why freedom is crucial to the happiness of man.  Without it, we cannot be who we were created to be.  We can not do what we were created to do.

We ponder often, and we ponder deeply, the meaning of life.  Perhaps we make it much harder than it needs to be.

If we recognize the need to embrace freedom, if we recognize the need to use it to emulate Jesus, to imitate the Love that he showered upon us, what else do we need to know?

Is it possible to live a life based solely on that premise?

Could it really be that simple?