The heat of the sun ... the hardness of a rock, the violence of a storm, the breath of your mouth ... the odour of a festering wound ... the colour of a glorious sunset ... the whiteness of the sacred Host ... all this ... and much more, is reality.

Indeed life is made up of so many "facts". We wish so many things in life, we dream about so many others. We have ideals, we have values, we have plans, projects ... We know what is good, we see what should be done, we feel, we think, we pray. And yet, when all is said and done, there remains just this: hard facts.

You dream of changing the world - yet you are only in touch with one tiny forgotten corner of it all. You want to bring peace to this strife-ridden world of ours - yet it is a struggle to obtain some peace just within your own tiny heart. You want to embrace the whole of humanity - yet you only have your younger sister or brother within your reach. You want to rid the world of all suffering and misery - yet it is simply your old grandmother who is alone upstairs. You want to love God with all your heart - yet you set apart just those few minutes of prayer every day.

We dream of doing so much, and may God bless us for it! But that dream remains just a dream if it is never translated into hard facts. And hard facts are always small, negligible, easily forgotten realities. The noblest of our ideals has to accept to be married to the poorest of our poor limitations. Without this marriage our love will bear no fruit. It will remain sterile.

This is why God, the Infinite, the Eternal, the All-Powerful, can only be found in the company of old childless Abraham; a stammering out-lawed Moses; a young, inexperienced David; a tough, desert-dweller John; an innocent, perplexed virgin Mary; a silent, self-effacing Joseph; an unwelcomed, shivering baby Jesus.

God the Almighty and Invisible Spirit takes on himself the smallness and the "hardness" of a human fact in a human world. His love is for real. He starts where we all start: in the smallness of our reality and in the reality of our smallness. Hard Facts are God's language. It is His way to say "I love you" - not in so many words, but in so many facts.

Because in Jesus, God's Word was made flesh. In Jesus, God's word became a simple, unpretentious, limited yet real, hard fact. Jesus can be seen, touched, comforted, cared after, anointed, embraced. He is there. So God's love is there. He can be welcomed or rejected, accepted or ignored, embraced or chased away. But He is here.

Next time you catch yourself praying for greater love, just allow your prayer to question your love. What about the hard facts that follow and precede your prayer? You love the poor but forget your silent class-mate eaten up by an inferiority complex. Your heart is inflamed by the words of the Gospel, but has only cold indifference for the words of your Parents. You even shed tears when contemplating the passion of Jesus, but do not hesitate to walk over your brother's feelings.