Love! How often have I heard your name! We hear the word used in numerous settings: we say that we love ice cream; we love our spouse and our children; we love the Seahawks, we love our country, yet we know that in each instance, the word has a different meaning. That same word can be used to cover sexual passion or unselfish benevolence; vague good-feelings toward others or a very committed devotion to God. Our mission statement even reminds us to love, yet what comes to mind when you think of that word?
There are different kinds of love. There is erotic love, which comes from the Greek word, eros, the desire that evokes passion. Couples madly in love know the feeling. It was this kind of love that moved their relationship beyond being just a casual friendship.
There is that love which joins us to our family, relatives and friends, known as filia, coming from the Greek for affection; the sentiment which move these relationships from mere acquaintances to people whom we deeply care about.
In his letter to the Church at Corinth, Paul speaks of a different love: agape, a love that is graced with a selfless-giving concern for others. He defines this unique expression of love by describing how this attitude manifests itself in the way we act toward others. The litany of qualities he spells out in his letter makes this passage one of the most beautiful poems found in scripture. Are you ignoring any of them?
“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things….Love never fails.”
Had those gathered in the synagogue in Nazareth been of that mindset, the gospel would have had a different ending. Recall that “all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth,” until Jesus reminded them of a low point in their history when God punished the people of Israel with a famine, but saved a Gentile widow. Jesus’ message that God’s love and mercy also reaches out to the Gentiles was the opposite of they wanted to hear. Because Jesus was being inclusive, his audience was bent on killing him.
Before passing judgment on the folks in Nazareth for over reacting, consider your own reaction to God’s truth. Are we as blind and narrow minded to what God has to say to us at times? Jesus speaks pearls of wisdom that we don’t always want to hear either. Some truths are bitter and we too may become angry or agitated when someone tells us a truth that we don’t want to hear. Had Jesus glorified the Jews and told his listners that they were God’s exclusively privileged people, he would probably have received bouquets instead of brickbats, appreciation rather than criticism.
But Jesus chose to call a spade a spade. In effect, he declared that God has no favorites and that all peoples are equal recipients of God’s love no matter who we are, where we come from and whatever our socio-economic status is. Every person is created in the image of God and is unconditionally loved by God, regardless of their faith or lack of faith.
What happened in the synagogue happens even today in some of our churches and communities. We may carry prejudices with us into our places of worship, and if we do, we shut our minds off to the message God wants to give us. Our prejudice can be against the homilist for what he has said, against someone in the congregation, or against the institutional Church as such. A prejudiced mind will never sit comfortably in Church nor find fulfillment in worship or carry the gospel message of love and mercy home.
Perhaps the most constant failure of Christians is our reluctance to take the Gospels seriously and entirely. We have an uncanny ability to block out those portions of scripture that challenge our prejudices and to magnify those passages that affirm our own viewpoints.
A staggering thought for each one of us to consider is that the love Paul describes should mark the way we live as social beings. Christians should love others as God loves us. This may seem such an impractical demand, given that there is such meanness in our culture. Our politics reeks of prejudice, e.g. judging all Muslims as terrorists when in fact many of them are seeking to experience the same dream that countless other Americans have done for decades.
Love is so alien to our politics. What if any of our current presidential candidates spoke of love instead of fear? What if any of them could spare as much love for the unborn as he or she can muster for baby seals and trees? What if any of them would realize that words of love apply to inmates on death row and refugees as much as they do to the unborn and middle class citizens? Such politicians could face the fate of any prophet for daring to speak up on behalf of God.
At the end of our lives, we will be judged not on our external accomplishments but on the quality of our love. For Paul, love sums up what we are to strive for as Christians. Let us strive to be loving and merciful like the Father.