Recognition of Purpose and Love

These virtues are like echoes of an undying symphony resonating through the chambers of our souls, interconnecting and resounding all the more together. Recognitions of God’s divine love for and purpose in us are not byproducts of the virtues but rather the reverse. These recognitions are the engine and transmission that drive our personal moral evolution.

Ownership of this greater identity is acknowledgement that we are not adrift in an indifferent or unfeeling universe but central and integral parts in our Creator’s universal design. How do we come to this recognition? Forgiveness modelling His grace is the beginning, that humbling act which strips away all pretensions and revealing the naked truth of our soul’s contrition and desire for goodness. It is in forgiving others, and ourselves ultimately, that we may see the bigger picture, to understand our place within that divine narrative.

We forgive ourselves most when we understand how mistaken we were in seeking out our own goals outside God’s plan in the endless search for greater goodness. This is maintenance, respite at last: contrition, repentance, and constant prayer. God’s love is the ultimate recognition, because it is the knowledge that we are infinitely loved, even as we are infinitely fallible. God is near and a living reality as the loving force that shapes our lives, conditions our hearts, and guides our steps.

Yet, this recognition is as active as its living reality and demands action in no uncertain terms. Response to the divine grace has been poured out upon us in its the unfathomably complex simplicity of its being. It calls us to greater virtues still, and to the steadfast resolve. We live in accordance with our true purpose by embodying the virtues that God designed reflectively to be the singular thing He loves most in this world: the heart of man and its limitless potential.