Second Sunday in Extraordinary Time, Sunday of the Divine Beloveds

There have been several pairs of beloveds in religious history. Religious history is a term which souns more accurate than mythology, and I'm going to stick with it for now. But when I think of the divide lovers, it is Radha and Krishna, so very united that they are often called the singular entity Radhakrishna,who come to mind. Krishna is the greatest and ultimate form of Vishnu. He is Jesus in the Gospel of John declaring "The Father and I are One." But on the earth he finds his mortal lover, his other self, the one to whom he always making love, wooing with his flute, the lady who always dances with him, Radha. Often they are pictured, boating together, on swings together, in great enjoyment of each other. He is hers and she is is, choicest of the beloveds. Krishna has wives and he loves them, but Radha is his chiefest love and though she is married to another, Krishna is hers. Their love is not agape. Their love is not chaste. It is not the equal Christian love of God for all. It is a most specific love. It is a liking, a mutual attraction not often spoken of in most western traditions. In the West if Catholicism that speaks of God having specific love for some, but this love usually entails much suffering and little pleasure let alone the idea of "like". The love between Krishna and Radha is full of pleasure and passion.

What is more, when Krishna loves this mortal woman, something is revealed. Whenever Vishnu comes to earth in whatever forms, he is always joined by his other side, Lakshmi. When he is Varaha the Boar, she is Varajahi the She Boar, when he is Ram she is Sita. And we understand that Radha is the highest form of Lakshmi. Zeus loves Europa, but she is simply Europa. Aphrodite loves Adonis, but they are both gods. The love of Krishna for Radha recognizes in her his own divinity, her forgotten deepest self, her true divine self. This love is Communion and not spectator worship. Being loved by the Beloved God makes the Beloved God as well. The two are One, and so we celebrate the Divine Beloved and the hard to grasp truth that if the Beloved is not in us, he is not anywhere, and if we have not discovered in our love of God, the divinity in our own hands, we have not discovered anything worth knowing.