False Loves - Forty Weeks - Sacred Story Prayer
"But every heart is also divided and broken by the effects of its multiple spiritual and psychological wounds. Your heart can be easily fooled and tempted by false promises of love. All false loves are illicit, because they are lusts masquerading as love. False loves are like mirages for parched and anxious hearts hoping to quench their thirst and find comfort. Instead of providing lasting peace, these illicit loves—illusions really—merely intensify longings, self-deception, self-preoccupation, and narcissism, ultimately leading to spiritual and psychological death.
It is easy to observe the corrosive effects of sins and addictions in other individuals and other groups. But when you are in their grip, it is difficult to imagine these sins and addictions as anything other than a precious lifeline. God clearly sees the corrosive and poisonous effects of false loves on persons, families, societies, and nature. But those in their grip are seduced into believing in false love's comforts, because all false loves can appear as good, life-giving, and natural.
The varieties of deception and seduction are as numerous as the ways a heart can be broken. God will not sanction these lusts because they issue from a violated heart and lead to your heart's further violation. Once acted upon, you will most assuredly violate the hearts of others. God is Love: the origin, the end, and the defender of the human heart. While God is infinitely merciful with our struggles, God cannot sanction anything that breaks your heart, destroys your authentic human nature, or leads to your spiritual death.
You will not be convinced of these false loves' unholy origin until you are honest about them. Examine your false loves in the light of day, not by the cover of night. Here in the light of grace, they will be revealed as neither true servants of the heart nor pathways to the Divine. By exposing them, you will not lose love and life, as you fear. You will find, eventually, the path to Love itself: the Christ who is worthy of your total devotion and self-surrender."
