“God is Love, and those who dwell in love, dwell in God, and God in them.” John 4:16.
In my quest to have seen all of the major Oscar nominated movies and performances, I finally saw Les Misrables yesterday. I am very familiar with the music, but unlike the rest of my family have never seen the musical. This was my first chance to actually watch the whole production. I was of course familiar with the story having read the Classic Comic Book in my misspent youth, and I admit not to have ever concentrated on the exact words of every song more taken by the power of voices when they were singing in unison.
So in the finale when Jean Valjean is going to God, I was floored by Hugo’s famous line – “To love another person is to see the face of God.”
The musical lyric is a direct quote from Hugo’s book, and there probably isn’t a writer or lyricist in history who doesn’t wish those words were original to him or her.
So a day later, I’m still taken by the words and reminded of a critical pathway during Lent – Love. “Without love, I am but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” We can talk about giving up chocolate, wine, or oatmeal raisin cookies, but the most important question we ask at this beginning of the Lenten season is what practices can we undertake to place Love – in other words, God – in our day-to-day lives.
“God is love,” and to “love another person is to see the face of God.”
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