Many Catholics forget that Christ in glory bears the wounds of His Passion.
His Glorified Body is Perfect, but with the holes in His Hands, Feet, His open Side...
Why?
Are these merely a proof of His Passion and Resurrection?
Are these the physical medals of spiritual warfare?
Are these the signs of Christ's victory over Death?
Yes, but more....
I think these are the wounds of love.
What do I mean?
When one loves another person, one allows oneself to become open and vulnerable. The only way to truly love is through sacrifice and dying to self. Most of these wounds of love are invisible.
Married couples go through times of unrequited love, even in their covenant state. The ebb and flow of emotions and the moving of romantic love into love of the will require heroic decisions in times of dryness.
These times cause wounds, like the wounds one may feel when one loves someone who does not return that love.
The saints who had the stigmata loved Christ so much they shared in His Passion.
The stigmata for some was invisible. Some people today bear invisible wounds of love.
Christ has loved all humans, each person ever created. Not all return His Love. Yet, He loves.
His Passion is the absorption of rejection.
Perfect Love is daily rejected. But, like the patient and long-suffering lover who continues to love despite hurt and rejection, Christ loves each one of us forever.
Perfect Love wears the wounds of love.
