Relationships: Sacrifice and Sanctification

Daily we are flooded with images and stories of relationship.  It becomes difficult to sort reality and fantasy. Girl meets boy and gets married. Compatible in all the right ways they seek pleasure in one another and enjoy a comfortable yet occasionally adventurous life. Mother has daughter. Daughter begins to resent mother for inconsistencies and unmet promises.  She gradually pushes away and works to form a "new beginning." The relationship becomes cold and cordial while bubbling with hostility under its shallow waters.

I could continue with the vague scenarios and the faces and roles could shift places like a deck of cards.  In the end my hope is to challenge the way we view the purpose of relationships.  Is the purpose of marriage compatibility and comfort?  Are we to write off all of those that do not meet our standards?  While there may be a place for these things in the name of boundaries, I challenge us to consider love and it's foolish wisdom that despises the proud.


Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.

   And he raised his head and looked upon 

the people, and there fell a stillness upon 

them. And with a great voice he said:

    When love beckons to you, follow him, 

    Though his ways are hard and steep. 

    And when his wings enfold you yield to

 him, 

    Though the sword hidden among his

pinions may wound you. 

    And when he speaks to you believe in

him, 

    Though his voice may shatter your dreams 

as the north wind lays waste the garden.

    For even as love crowns you so shall he 

crucify you. Even as he is for your growth

so is he for your pruning. 

    Even as he ascends to your height and 

caresses your tenderest branches that quiver

in the sun,

    So shall he descend to your roots and

 shake them in their clinging to the earth.

   Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto 

himself. 

   He threshes you to make you naked.

   He sifts you to free you from your husks. 

   He grinds you to whiteness.

   He kneads you until you are pliant; 

   And then he assigns you to his sacred

fire, that you may become sacred bread for

God’s sacred feast.

   All these things shall love do unto you 

that you may know the secrets of your 

heart, and in that knowledge become a

fragment of Life’s heart.

   But if in your fear you would seek only 

love’s peace and love’s pleasure, 

   Then it is better for you that you cover

your nakedness and pass out of love’s 

threshing floor,

   Into the seasonless world where you 

shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, 

and weep, but not all of your tears.

- Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet"