Love Without Limits (2)

From Archimandrite Lev Gillet, “A Monk of the Eastern Church”:

“A New Creation”

“My child, do not expect some new revelation,” says the Lord of Love. “I will speak to you only of those things that I have spoken from the beginning.

“What might be new in what I say is the special attention I shall give to certain aspects of eternal Truth.

“The time is coming when a deepening of Love will make an irresistible appeal to the faith of a great many people. They will discover Love, the Lord of Love, the universal Love that knows no limits. This will be no new message, no new revelation. Yet those who open themselves to this vision with all their heart will help me to create a new Heaven and a new Earth, an end toward which I am laboring constantly.

“Thereby the discovery of Love, our reception within ourselves of infinite Love, will itself be a New Creation. At every moment, Love longs to create among you an ever greater abundance of love.”

“This Great Vision”

“Fire burst forth from the burning bush, yet the bush was not destroyed. Draw near to the Burning Bush, my child. Reflect on this great vision, and why the bush burned and still was not consumed.

“The fire that burns the bush without destroying it is a fire nourished by nothing apart from itself. It subsists alone, by itself. And of itself it spreads abroad in infinite growth. This fire does not destroy the wood of the bush. Rather, it purifies the wood. It eliminates everything in the wood that is merely brambles and thorns. Yet it does not deform the bush. It respects its original structure, even while it eliminates its superfluous growth. It renews without killing. It transforms the wood itself into fire, a lasting fire.

“Surely, according to the most simple, the most elementary interpretation, you can behold in the Burning Bush the expression of divine protection, which sustains your existence in the face of every burning pain and suffering. There, my child, you can find the assurance of a supreme Compassion, a preserving Mercy. There you can see as well the sign of a divine Purification: one painful for you to endure, yet one that sets you free.

“The Burning Bush, however, has a still deeper meaning. It bears a Revelation of your Lord and God Himself.

“The Burning Bush is an expression of the divine nature. In the flame of the bush you can have a glimpse of Who I am. As the Scripture declares, your Lord, the Lord of Love, is a consuming fire!

“Like the flame of the Bush, I am Love that gives endlessly of itself. I am that generosity that knows no bounds. No one can say of my Love: it extends to this point, and no further.

“I am that Love that always tends to incorporate and assimilate every element of human existence it encounters (indeed, I am the very Source of those elements). Just as the fire burns without consuming the wood of the bush, I never destroy the persons I have created. I only wish to make disappear whatever there is within a person that conflicts with the essence of Love.

“I take for myself and make it my own. I transform and I transfigure. I bestow life. I transpose human life on to a higher plane.

“He who loves unites himself to those whom he loves. I unite myself to you, my beloved. Nevertheless, there can be no confusion between myself, who am Love, and you, who receive that Love.

“Can you now behold this Great Vision? Do you see the flame that no one lights, the flame that leaps forth from my very Heart, the flame which is my very Being? Do you see the divine Fire that spreads out across the world? The entire universe is the Burning Bush!”