A few thoughts on Life and Love

So, I was at Mass this morning, and during his homily the priest made a reference to a poem by William Blake, "The Little Black Boy." In particular, he noted that in the poem the black boy's mother says, "And we are put on earth a little space/That we may learn to bear the beams of love," and he went on to explain that the meaning of life, as he believes and as Blake puts it, is to experience love.

I think that through his homily he had the right idea, but when he stated his conclusion he missed the mark; I think he misinterpreted "bear the beams of love." I'm no English major, I've never seen the poem before, and I certainly never spoke to Blake himself, but I don't think the sense is meant to be "experience the rays of love" but rather, "to uphold the structure of love." It says a couple things about me, I guess. First, that I think life is meant to be active, not passive; we aren't meant to just experience things, but to be a part of them, to do things. If we're all just sitting back experiencing love, who's the one providing it? But it also speaks to the fact that I think love is hard, that it takes effort to love and, in fact, that it takes effort to be loved.

Analyze me through that as you wish, but I think it holds.