Beloved: A Word Spoken to the Heart

Ivonne J. Hernandez contemplates the word that sparked healing in her soul.

A priest once shared a story with me. One Sunday, after Mass, a young child approached him and asked him a question. “Father, what’s the word?”

He did not know what the child meant, so he said, “What word?”

The child then said, “The one that will heal my soul.”

And the priest remembered the words we say before Communion, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” 

When God speaks, reality is changed 

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. … When God speaks, reality is changed. “Let there be light!“ “This is my Body.” “This is my Blood.” How often do we ask God to speak His Word to us? How often do we, like that little child, have the understanding that truly, just one word from God will heal our souls? 

"Beloved." This is the word God has been speaking recently to my heart. And, as I listen and try to receive it, I realize that there are parts of my heart that are having a hard time with that. So, He repeats it again, and again, and again … in a different circumstance, in a different place. There are places in my heart where God’s Word echoes and fills the space, and receiving a soothing balm, my soul assents. Yet, other places feel blocked by something I can’t yet name. I ask Jesus to help me listen to Him, to help me believe the Truth about myself: “Lord, say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

He listens, and He adds a word … "my beloved." 

Beloved: dearly loved: dear to the heart (Merrian Webster Dictionary) 

Do you believe you are the beloved?  

Can you believe this with all your heart … with all your soul … with all your mind? Or are there places in your heart where you doubt this? Are there places in your heart where a lie is what you believe? If so, then there are places in your heart where you are not yet able to fully love. 

[Jesus] said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) 

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)  

I remember when my kids were little that if they wanted to give us a gift, they needed to get the money first from us. Yet, even if technically I had purchased my own gift, I was delighted to receive what they had purchased with love. It is the same with God. We can only love Him with the love He has given us. 

After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17) 

This is how Jesus goes forth in His mission … grounded in the Father’s love. All He is and all He does, is Him returning love for love. We are the Body of Christ. We are the beloved of God. When parts of our hearts are not able to receive this love, we are not able to fully love. When we don’t act from our identity as a beloved son or daughter of God, we are rejecting the love of God. But God is always the same. The One Who loved us into being loves us now with the same love. Nothing can separate us from His love.  

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39) 

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2) 

Lord, say the word … and help us believe.  

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Copyright 2024 Ivonne H. Hernandez
Images: Canva

This article was originally published at the Elisheba blog and is published here with permission.