We Are Rooted in Love

I began writing this particular post focusing on practical things, like the need for a consistent, science-informed, science-led response to Covid-19. The necessity for an orderly transition of presidential power that's at the core of a democratic republic. The need to remember that almost half of U.S. voters didn't choose the president-elect. 

But then, I was drawn back to something Richard Rohr wrote, on his Daily Meditation website. 

Here's, in part, what he had to say: 

"Love is our deepest identity and what we are created in and for. To love someone “in God” is to love them for their own sake and not for what they do for us. Only a transformed consciousness sees another person as another self, as one who is also loved by Christ, and not as an object separate from ourselves on which we generously bestow favors. If we have not yet loved or if love wears us out, is it partly because other people are seen as tasks or commitments or threats, instead of as extensions of our own suffering and loneliness? Are they not in truth extensions of the suffering and loneliness of God?

When we live out of this truth of love, instead of the lie and human emotion of fear, we will at last begin to live. Love is always letting go of a fear. In the world of modern psychologizing, we have become very proficient at justifying our fears and avoiding simple love. The world will always teach us fear. Jesus will always command us to love. And when we seek the spiritual good of another, we at last forget our fears and ourselves."

I think Rohr is on to something.

During turbulent times, like we're currently experiencing, it's helpful to be reminded that we all experience fear and loneliness. Ignoring this reality is to ignore ourselves as fragile beings in a shared universe.

But we can take comfort, as Rohr points out, that our core identity is rooted in love.

For bible fans, this point was emphasized by John, perhaps most emphatically when he wrote: "Dear friends, since God loved us that much [to send Jesus] we surely ought to love one another." (1 John 4:11 NLT).  

A few verses later John says, "God is love. and all who live in love live in God." (1 John 4:16).

And it's not just Christians who profess this elemental link to love. Almost all the major religions of the world agree on this.

We are, as humans, bonded together by love.

Our actions don't always evidence this. But that doesn't stop the truth of it.

That's where faith and hope come in.

Paul, in one of his epistles wrote: "If I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing." 
(1 Corinthians 13:2-3 NLT).

And to make it perfectly clear, Paul went on to offer one of the most beautiful definitions of love I've ever come across: "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." (1 Corn. 13: 4-7 NLT).

Of course, Paul wasn't saying this kind of agape love is easy!

It's actually quite difficult at times. And it's important to remember that love and like aren't the same thing. Like is an instinctual response. Love is an active decision. 

And ultimately, to a large extent, love isn't based in our intellect. It's based in our spirit.

For us living in 21st Century Western culture, this can be enormously difficult to grasp.

Fortunately, we have the examples of others. (Think, for instance, of John Lewis, or Fanny Lou Hamer). 

We have scriptures and books and spiritual practices if you're so inclined to search them. 

At the end of the day, it's good to be reminded that Jesus saw beyond blue and red. Or red, white and blue for that matter.

So did Gandhi. So did Mohammad.

We have them. And we have each other.

Photo Credits: Top, Good Housekeeping; Middle, Spiritual Earth; Bottom, Sweeping Heart Zen.