Every once in awhile, even celibates contemplate marriage. At least this one does. (Especially when a great picture of a married couple arrives in my email.) Marriage reveals something of the mystery of Christ's love for us. Well, not quite. Maybe it would be more accurate to say marriages: marriages are that window into Christ's love. I'm not talking about some abstract ideal. What reveals divine Love is actual marriages. The marriages of family, friends, the couple at the next table, in the next pew. You get my drift.
What makes this song by Bon Jovi stand out is that it isn't about the usual youthful fare that mistakes desire, longing, or fire for love. The love in Thank You... is centered on commitment and action. Sure, there is an element of passion in seeing a new sky in blue eyes and having one's dreams and world collapse in the gaze. (It is a bit scary to think that this might reveal something of God's love: that God might want us that completely.)
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Photo by Mary Lou Griffith |
What makes this song stand out is that the passion is an undercurrent for a deeper, more lasting commitment. In this lyric, love is an action: it reveals what is hidden, it resuscitates, is for better and worse, it rescues, risks, and gives wings. Of course, the video centers on a young couple, but it doesn't stay there. It simply can't. This kind of love is best revealed through the wisdom and experience that only time offers. The young couple's hope is fully found in the commitment of the mature couple. (And, isn't the group of nuns that the bride passes on the way to the wedding an interesting visual choice? Are they merely a prop on Roman streets, or is the video suggesting that this sort of love is, in its own way, found in the commitment of celibates to their life of service to others?)
Maybe when we next see a mature couple dancing together, sharing laughter, eye's locked together, we are getting a glimpse of Divine Love. (As a Dehonian, I would call it a glimpse of the love contained for us in the Sacred Heart of Christ.) At such times, there is no choice other than to say to God: "Thank you for loving me..."
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