Love is real, real is love… — John Lennon
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. — St. John the Evangelist
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us…. — St. Paul
Love is real, God is love, and God dwells in your heart. — The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism
I was talking to a friend who is a retired Catholic priest, and he said to me, “I can’t think of anything more important than to remind people that God loves them.” I concurred, and I mentioned to him that the very first line on page 1 of The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism is kind of like that — a one-sentence summary of what I believe is the heart of Christian mysticism, as well as the key to my own work as a writer.
Love is real. God is love. God dwells in your heart.
Remembering how the Bible also reminds us that “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), naturally I acknowledge my sources: drawn from both the New Testament (writings attributed to the apostles John and Paul), as well as a more contemporary “John” — John Lennon, whose song “Love” is perhaps the sweetest declaration that love is real (although some versions of Buddy Holly’s song “Not Fade Away,” especially as performed by the Rolling Stones or Grateful Dead, also declare that Love is real).
Incidentally, this is being published on what would have been John Lennon’s 85th birthday! Happy birthday, and may you rest in peace.
I know a lot of people have difficulty with God ‚ both the language and the mystery toward which God-talk points. And in our cynical age, some people have given up on love too. But I hope we can all find someplace deep within us that still recognizes that love is real, and therefore can accept that the best and healthiest way to think about God is simply that God is love: and finally, that this Divine Love (or Loving God) dwells nowhere else but in all of our hearts.
That’s the foundation of mysticism. Everything else that all the mystics have ever said or prayed or thought, are all footnotes to this simple truth: God is Love and lives within you.
May we all realize this more and more with each passing day.
Quotation sources: “Love” from the album Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon (1970); I John 4:7, 16; Romans 5:5, The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism, p. 1.