In Service to Love

And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. – Luke 1:38

Sunday, December 18, is the final Sunday in Advent. This week we explore the attribute of the Divine that we call ‘Love.’ Like the other attributes – Hope/Faith, Peace and Joy – Love is an aspect of our Divine Nature. My friend and Unity minister, Diadra Price, refers to them in her book Grace Awakening Essence as aspects of our spiritual DNA, or Divine Nature Attributes. As such, they exist in the Absolute as who and what we are. They abide at the center of our being eternally. In our humanness, we can connect with and activate them in our conscious awareness through our active states of mind and heart.

As I contemplated ‘Love’ this week, I found it somewhat challenging to transcend my concepts of love as an emotional experience. ‘Love’ is a word we most often use to define a feeling we have in relation to something or someone. Yet, in its essential nature ‘Love’ is not dependent upon an object. ‘Love’ as an aspect of our DNA is self-existent. However, as we open ourselves to connect with it, we can experience and express Love in many varied ways.

‘Love’ as an attribute of our Divine Nature is the movement of God Energy in, through and as us. It is the Energy of the Divine that we can consciously connect with and allow to flow freely through us.

In the Biblical story, Mary, the mother of Jesus, metaphysically represents for us the state of mind and heart that each of us may embrace in order to connect with this Divine Energy of Love.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she was going to give birth, she immediately resisted. She said, “How can this be when I am a virgin” (Luke 1:34). A resistant response is typical for of us when we receive inner guidance that goes against what we believe is possible. Mary was willing to release her resistance as she delved deeper into the awareness of the inner guidance, represented by Gabriel in the story. She was open and receptive.

In order to connect with the Divine Love at our core, we must develop an open and receptive mind and heart. We must be open to hear and receive the guidance of our inner Knower. Love comes into our awareness only when we prepare a place for it. While it is not expressly told to us in the story as presented to us in the Gospels, in other Scriptures it is clear that Mary consistently prepared her heart and mind for guidance through prayer.

As she heard the inner voice telling her that she would give birth to God’s son, she was able to go beyond her rational mind and move into acceptance. She said, “Be it done unto to me as you have said. I am the Lord’s handmaiden” (Luke 1:38). Even though she did not fully comprehend what was happening, she was open to doing was she was called to do in service to a higher purpose and in service to Love and to the world, even if it meant going against the societal and religious mores of the day.

As Mary demonstrated, when we connect with Divine Love as an aspect of our being and listen to the inner voice that calls us to service, we may not always like what we hear. It may go against things that we have believed or ways the world tells us to behave. But, if we are committed to being in service to Love and to the unfolding of all that is in alignment with Love, we must as Mary did, say, “I accept. I am here to serve Love in whatever capacity I am called to.” It may not be easy. It may not be comfortable. It may not be rational. We are always at choice. We, like Mary, must make the conscious choice to be in service to love or continue to be in service to our comfort and possible complacency.

Later in the narrative when Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, she speaks what has become known as the Magnificat, which begins “My Soul does magnify the Lord…” (Luke 1:46). In our vernacular, she is saying that her divine self, the part of her that is created in the image/likeness of the Creator/God and which is God in expression, celebrates or makes great the “Lord.” Charles Fillmore, the cofounder of Unity, says in the The Revealing Word that the word ‘Lord’ metaphysically represents, “the activity of the spiritual I Am…”

In the state of Love, we are connecting with our soul, the aspect of us that is eternally in alignment with the Divine as Love expressing as us. In that consciousness of remembered Union, we surrender to the soul and allow it to have its life in and through us. Mary, as a representation of Divine Love consciousness is, in this passage speaking from her connection with the soul. She sings her song of love from that place.

We connect with the Divine attribute of Love when we are open and receptive to it. When we invite Love into our consciousness, Love answers our call. Love, as the movement of God in, through and as us, calls us into service to itself as our invitation to serve the Higher good of all. In the consciousness of Love, our soul sings in celebration of our ‘I Am’ - the true nature of who and what we are.

As we know, Mary did follow the call. She gave birth to Jesus, the embodiment of Divine Love, who taught and healed and brought into this dimension a new awareness of the Christ indwelling as each of us.

This week, as we embrace Mary, the mother of Jesus, as an example of one who embraced Love, let us also connect with that aspect of us that she reflects. Mary is you and she is me when we are open, willing and in service to Love.

Join us on Sunday morning at 10:00 as we explore Divine Love. I will talk more about how we can develop the state of mind and heart that welcomes the awareness of Love and how we can be the embodiment of Love and share it with the world as our way shower, Jesus, did.