Irresistible Ocean

Infinite goodness and the heart of God

For years now, one of my favorite images for the mystery we call God is that of the ocean — probably because I grew up in Virginia, not far from the Atlantic. There, my imagination was inspired by the vast sense of spaciousness where the azure sky met the cerulean water.

Later, when I encountered the wisdom of the seventh-century mystic, Isaac of Syria, I learned that he compared the mercy of God to the vastness of the ocean (by comparison, all the sins of all humanity were nothing more than a handful of dirt, easily washed away by the expansiveness of the ocean!).

So it was a delight to find this nugget of wisdom in The Primacy of Love, a short book by Franciscan theologian and scientist Ilia Delio: “love is an irresistible ocean of attraction whose infinite goodness leads into the heart of God.”¹ She goes on to say, “The world is not created ex nihilo, out of nothing, the world is created ex amore, out of the infinite love of God.”²

When I was growing up, most of the images of God that I encountered, whether at home, in church, or through society at large, tended to emphasize God as a patriarchal figure who judged our sins and maybe only begrudgingly gave us eternal life (thanks to the death of Jesus). I have long since abandoned that caricature of the divine mystery, but I know its effect lingers, not only in my life but in society at large.

Failure to trust in the God of infinite love might be a root cause of so much of our social division and individual angst. I’m not suggesting that if everyone agreed that “God is love” suddenly the world would be a perfect place: far from it! But I do believe that a more widespread willingness to meet God through an ocean-like abundance of love would certainly help.

“God is love” — it’s the only time in the Bible that biblical writers offered a succinct and direct definition of God. St. Isaac, Ilia Delio, and others expand on this: God is an ocean of love. May we who follow the mystics take the time to truly ponder what this means, and consider how we can calibrate our lives to this liberating truth.

1. Delio, Ilia. The Primacy of Love (My Theology), Kindle Edition, p. 8.

2. ibid., page 18.