Love - the essence of the universeFather John J . Lombardi I recently was reading about Einstein and how he was searching for the " Theory of Everything "- the scientific " grail - law " that explained the meaning and workings of the entire cosmos . He never found it . ( He did say : " God doesn ' t play dice with the universe . ") Then , one day I realized , and awakened to Einstein ' s dilemma , I did find the Theory of Everything . I then went to our children ' s choir one day and playfully asked them about this . To the question of What is the answer to The Theory of Everything , one boy answered : " God . " … Right on . " God is Love " ( I Jn . 4 : 6 ) . God ' s uncreated and divine Love is the Theory of Everything and , as the great Italian poet Dante said , is what moves the stars . I ' m now reading a book called " The Fabric of the Universe " about cosmology and string theory ( little microcosmic strings which supposedly build and " run " everything in the universe ) and it is entertaining and very scientific - though it does not discuss theology and philosophy . I began thinking , after reading some of this book and the choir boy ' s insight : The reason the universe stays put together - why it came to be in the first place - is because God is love , and , theologians say , His love " boils over " and creates the universe - and gives it hidden laws to make it stable . In This Sunday ' s Gospel Jesus says " Love one another … as I have loved you " ( Jn 15 : 12 ) . Seems self evident - love … love as Jesus loved . But it is not so easy sometimes . - for instance when we are driving on the highway , when we learn of " The DaVinci Code ' s " deceptions and slander , when we are shopping in stores , when we are multi - tasking , when a cell phone goes off in church , when a " sandpapery " person confronts us , when we face a beggar on the street … In these instances we cannot always rely on mere sentimental love but actually need to make a choice of the will to love the " other " precisely because it is difficult - to love as Jesus Himself loved - even painfully . But Love is what it is all about - life , our Sacred Religion , Jesus Christ , Eternal Life , and , yes , the Universe , too . . Along these lines of love I recently read in a Fulton Sheen book that the Greek word for sacrificial love , agape is mentioned in the bile 320 times , while the term for " friendship love "- philia , is mentioned only 45 times . Hmm : love can be banal and bland - nebulous and feel - good , but the Bible , the catholic Church and every crucifix proclaims a kinda ' " tough love "- sacrificial , wherein one ' s ego dies and the God - graced liberated soul serves others in freedom and purity , not for one ' s own sake , or gratification , as St Catherine of Siena learned and explained in her mystical " Dialogues on Divine Providence "-- , but solely for the God and the " other "- without wanting thanks or acknowledgement . I recently read a tract from a psychologist , somewhat astonishingly , wherein he stated that no religion talks about this kind of " absolutely altruistic love "- which is sacrificial and self - denying . Wait a minute , what about Our Lord and His disciples , the saints ? What about Blessed Damien who served until death the Lepers of Molokai ? What about St Edmund Campion who died a martyr of the Truth of the Faith in England ? What about Mother Seton - our " hero of the Mountain - who tirelessly served souls no one else would ? …" Love one another as I have loved you … " That ' s a huge word , " as ". It makes the difference ; it ' s the Equation of the Universe - both mystical and menial at the same time . After these experiences this Chaplin - priest went on an adventure - a kinda ' retreat vacation - to Western Maryland . After all Christ said : " Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile " ( Mk . 6 : 31 ) First stop : Rocky Gap State Park ( near Cumberland ) . The priest found a beautiful camping spot right nearby Lake Habeeb . The water was lapping up against the land and a nearby dock , the trees whistled with the wind , the fragrant green mountains hovered above and nearby -- it was just before nightfall - a blessed spot indeed . The priest , rushing out from his duties , of course forgot many things , but eventually thought -" less is more , God will provide . " So he set up his tent and built a campfire , and without a lantern it was hard to read or do anything else , but : simply watch the campfire flicker and flame into the night . That was it : enjoy the simplicity and beauty of a campfire and listen to the night woods ' sounds . God ' s form of love was manifesting all around him - the universe was undulating with sacredness . Later , after taking a walk into the woods and to the nearby lake , he was ready for rest . In the tent he read with a strategically placed flashlight under the night stars of the universe . After turning out the light to sleep he heard rumblings of some animal just outside the tent . From his past experiences he realized it would be either a big animal l like a black bear or some small vermin like a squirrel . No black bear , that , so he fell asleep and later awoke to early dawn light rain . After " breaking camp " ( breakfast was easy : some fig newtons and water - and then meditation - prayer ) the priest proceeded to Deep Creek Lake , in Garret County , and found , amidst the forecasted - and - obviously - evident rains , a hotel room just by the lake - compete with a balcony . This was the next best thing to camping out - soft bed and lakeside enjoyment all at once ! The lake spread out before him . And the nearby mountains loomed nearby creating a panorama of beauty and harmony . God ' s love was certainly evident here in this beautiful fabric of universe . While stopping in a grocery store to pick up some " forgotten items , " the priest overheard the conversation of the customers and check out lady right before him . The lady said it would be cloudy and rainy for the next five days . The customers heaved and asked where the warm weather was and expressed disappointment about bad fishing weather . The priest could sympathize but already knew this information ( not by watching the Weather Channel but by , word of mouth ! ) Anyway , the priest made a subtle resolution after realizing this was a " Providential Moment ": don ' t focus on " bad weather "- give thanks in all things for whatever God provides . Surrender now to win . Later in the day the priest went out for a bike ride around the lake . As he crossed Glendale Bridge between two parts of the large , 1924 man - made lake aside to him , under cloudy skies , he kept trying to think : " Thank You . " That became his aspiration ( a small prayer uttered interiorly and frequently to focus one ' s attention ) . His thoughts : Thank you for the lake , for the mountains and fresh air , for the clouds which make the lands green and fertile . Thank you for the opportunity for refreshment and retreating vacations . Thank you for the time to be with You , O Lord . Thank you for the love you give to me . .. Yet : it was still cloudy ! My little choir friends might enjoy knowing that Einstein once vacationed at this lake . So did Henry Ford , Thomas Alva Edison and Harvey Firestone . . I only imagine Einstein ' s thinking ( he was from Germany with it ' s beautiful Bavaria and Black Forest near the Alps , mind you ) and he musta enjoyed the conifer trees so voluminous and vastly populous here ; the quietude of the environs , the beautiful , fresh lake water , the surrounding mountains , the vast open skies and universe around him . He must have thought better out here with all these ripe conditions , but unfortunately , apparently missed The theory of Everything - God ' s Love . The priest did go to the Falls on what began as a cloudy day . But : eventually it cleared as he stood next to the sixty - foot falls , roaring - just after all these Maryland " monsoons "- pummeling , torrid , driving water . Energy . Might . Love ' s form surging forth . The sun began peaking out as he stood right next to the peak of the falls , looking below - trying not to slip ( glad mom ' s not here ! ). Then the priest walked below and the scene and experience was dramatically different : He was now virtually in the waterfalls . No , not directly under the rousing water but within its spraying breath and force - just twenty yards form it , as it now beaconed like a aquamarine - lighthouse because of the sunlight ' s piercing rays . The fresh watery air of its pervading pressure hurled toward the priest and bathed him in moist air . He was standing in a kinda misty " cauldron of healing " and remained minutes there to enjoy it as the rare sunlight shone from the heavens : earthy and sky , Divinity and mortal at - one - ment . There was nothing else . Everything was illuminated . He then thought : it ' s one thing to stand above a falls , another to look at it , another , to see a picture of one , and still another completely different ecstatic - like experience to be within a waterfalls . After taking a hike along the creeks and rivers ( enjoying the rainforest - like plants and huge , sequoia - like trees ) the priest retreated back to the lake and did some meditational reading from a book , " The Priest is Not His Own , " by Fulton J Sheen , from a chapter about the need for priestly poverty : " A man is free on the inside because he has a soul ; he is free on the outside economically , because he owns property . The human personality is enriched through things … The priest , however , has another way to extend his personality : not by acquiring stocks and bonds , but by a greater reproduction in himself of the Hypostatic Union . He crushes his ego and desires so that in him there are two natures in one person : on the one hand his human nature , on the other ' his participation in the Divine Nature ' through grace and the losing of his personality in the person of Christ . " … The meditating priest thought : we can only do this by love , laying down his life for the High Priest and for His people . He also thought how often he had failed to sacrificially love because of ego , selfish desires , inordinate attachments . .. But like one of Mother Seton ' s motto encourages : " Hazard forward always . " Other times the priest spent walking and hiking , riding a bike around the lake , simply enjoying the beautiful , refreshing scenery ( " Thank You , Lod ")- even if it was bathed in storm clouds one minute , and sunshine light the next - God adds it all up - the cloudy days and sunny ones - and we therefore , from God ' s Equation of Love -- get the most beautiful state - Mary - Land ! While meandering upon his travels in this green MaryLand , the priest sometimes thought : this is enough , what is right here , right now , and thought of the aspiration : Present moment , Holy Moment / Simple moment , only Moment . That is : all we have , and try as we might for more , we cannot create anything else other than this present moment , and should be able to somehow surrender to what God is giving right before us - this holy moment in space and time - even though I have things to do and tasks to accomplish - the present moment is all I have . If not now , when ? , if not here , where ? ... will I be happy , content to find God ' s Providence ? Another aspiration appeared to the priest : Nothing lacking , nothing distracting : All things divinely interacting . When we are in our daily lives or on vacation we seem to always want more pleasures , desire more excitement , crave more people and more uplifting exotic experiences - something " more , " " different " or " new ". Amidst this " striving - syndrome " it is difficult if not impossible to see God right under our " spiritual noses ", to find God revealing His love as the essence and fabric of the universe within my " pedestrian " space and time . Instead we are always chasing and seeking and desiring . Thus the priest tried to remember : Give thanks in all things - even when it ' s cloudy ! ). Later that day while reading on his balcony yet another rainstorm came breathing thru Looking closer upon the nearby lake the priest saw a faint trace of color , then looking closer , he saw a rainbow - it was almost next to him . on the left of him out on the lake the rainbow aloud was coming out of the water : blue , green , purple yellow and orange ; it was beaming . The priest could distinctly see the other end entering the water - or was it coming form the lake water ? Anyway , he thought : how beautiful , enticing , enchaining what a manifestation of Love . It became more brilliant as the sun shone more radiantly , and then another rainbow appeared , above the first one . The two rainbows formed prefect arcs , " aesthetic naturalist paintings " of beauty , light and love . The priest wanted to go near the rainbows but couldn ' t as he was enclosed by the balcony . They still seemed nearby : hovering , shining , presenting . The priest wanted to go into , and commingle with them , so entrancing was their color , luminosity and ethereal beauty . Eventually the one disappeared although and the original one later appeared out on the lake further and then eventually over - cast upon the far mountain . There it stood and eloquently existed for minutes until it finally disappeared . Rainbows , the priest thought , are interminglings of light , water and the usually invisible chromatic scale of color - and you need the right conditions for them to occur . He thought : under the proper conditions a rainbow manifests , revealing what is already there but naked to the eyes : What about other invisible realties ? - angels , the Mystical Communion , Heaven . They exist , somewhere near or far , but invisibly , only manifesting under some " right conditions "- beautiful and appealing -- like the Equation of the Universe - so real and near , yet so rarely realized . He also thought : if a rainbow can be this beautiful what about the allure and commingling entrancement of Heaven and God Himself ? Love was manifesting in a startling stunning way - love is the essence of the universe .