A Higher Love...

The Virgin Theotokos & Christ-Child

As Christians, brothers and sisters; are we not called to love unconditionally?  Are we not called to subdue those passions of anger, enmity, hatred and envy that well up inside of our hearts the moment that we are hurt by another?  When we see tragedies taking place due to the actions of another, does it not bruise our hearts to kindle an indignant rage of sorts?

I can tell you that if you are a living, breathing human being, you are not immune to the onset of hatred anymore than any other human.  None can lay claim to absolute perfect stoicism nor can we claim perfect love sustained throughout our lifetime in the face of adversity.  We will inevitably at some point give into that urge and allow ourselves to wallow in the perceived comfort of our own self-pity or anger.

I know this personally because I am a fellow human and have those same urges.  Sometimes, I give into them.  The fact that I wear clericals and have answered a call to serve God's people does not preclude me from being human.  Hatred, anger, fear, enmity are endemic in the human race from the onset of the infamous apple incident in the Garden of Eden.

So. what are we to do?  Christ has admonished us to love one another as He has loved us.  We have been told not to return evil for evil.  We are to "turn the other cheek".  Lastly, we are given the hardest charge of all... We are to love our enemies.  These are hard teachings!  We are to go against the seemingly natural progression of human behavior and instead, embrace a higher calling to love instead of hate.  In other words, we are being called to a "discipline" of sorts.  We are to embrace that which is taught as right and moral in God's eyes and deny that which seems instinctual.

On the other side of the issue, we have those who say that we should apply this ethos to all things and to love without any sort of pre-qualifying factors.  They would say that we should love and accept all humans and extend that love to include relationships and situations because this is what Christ commanded us to do.  There should be no limit to that love and acceptance, even if one is in the throes of inherently sinful activity.

Well, the question then begs to be asked, If the love that we are called to express for our enemies is that of a discipline that calls for subduing instinctual passions, then what should we say of the nature of all human love?  Should not all love be disciplined in such a way as to lift one up closer to God and His intended purpose?  Should it not require of the heart to be true and directed toward each other's person as Christ's love was directed towards each of us as persons? Remember that we are called to love our enemies but we are not called to love that which they do.  Husbands and wives are called to love each other but not necessarily all that each does.  God loves us as we are because we are wonderfully made in His image but he does detest our sinful natures and the words, deeds, and thoughts that lead up to them.  Truly it can be said that we are to look at He who first loved us as an example to imitate and to espouse toward one another.  One cannot love God and then hate his neighbor.

If you believe in the veracity of this last statement then you understand that the love we show to one another is a fruit of the Faith of Christ being within our hearts.  We cannot separate those two conditions from each other because we are to either love completely or we are are irretrievably broken.  Love bears all things.  It leads to forgiveness, peace, reconciliation, and the ability to be free from the harmful spiritual and psychological damage done to us by an enemy.  It leads to a deeper understanding of the love of the Father who sent His Son, who in turn showed the profundity of His own love for us by dying upon the Cross.  It is our lack of this disciplined love that leads to broken relationships, broken lives, and a skewed sense of right and wrong.  Indeed, one look at our own history of war and violence and you'll find that it is not differing ideologies that cause the main issues.  It is the lack of true love for one another that was demonstrated and proscribed by Christ that is the root of many of the evils of human history.

Our task going forward, then... Is to realize this truth and strive towards that which Christ exemplified in word and in deed.  We will invariably fall down again and again, but we should remember that it is God who loves us as persons and for our failings... He provides grace that we may repent and try again.  Should we not also love in like manner each other?