Learning to Love Radically: A Reflection on Paris

 

Like many of you, I was mortified to learn of the acts of violence that erupted last Friday night in Paris, leaving more than 150 people dead, and countless others wounded physically and emotionally. My feelings of horror were accented by the fact that I, like many of the victims, was engaged in a causal Friday evening activity that should have been safe. Now I feel vulnerable. If striking terror and fear in the hearts of their victims and others was the intent of the attackers, they succeeded. As I watch the aftermath unfold, I am also afraid that these attackers may have succeeded in far more than terrorizing us; they may have succeeded in making us hate them. We have allowed our emotions to control our thinking. When a person gains control of your emotions, then he or she has control over you.

 

There have been many different responses to the attacks. France declared war on ISIS and began airstrikes and raids. Here in America, the most troubling of these responses has been the declaration by more than half of our state governors, and other politicians, that they will not allow Syrian refugees to seek safety within their borders. Ironically, many of these same politicians are about to celebrate a holiday that commemorates the birth of a child born into a refugee family that also could not find refuge. The disconnect between these governors’ actions and their beliefs is astounding, yet not surprising when one considers that they are allowing fear and hate to control them. They fail to see that to respond to hate with hateful and malevolent behavior only feeds hate. Hate begets hate. How we respond in times of crisis speaks more to our true nature than when we are in peace. As Dr. King stated, “The ultimate measure of a man [or nation] is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” We are being challenged.   We must respond with love, not fear and hate.

 

To be sure, I am not unaware that this begs the question of what does it mean to love. I believe we throw the word “love” around too carelessly. We think we understand what it means, but the more I observe the world, the more I realize that we do not comprehend the full burden and commitment of love. To treat kindly only those who are kind to us or cause us no fear is not to love them. That is simply reciprocity. Love understands the risk, but looks beyond it to the need and chooses to address the need despite the risk. Jesus gave a powerful example of love when he told the parable of the Good Samaritan. A lawyer approached Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answered that he should love God and love his neighbor. The lawyer, in typical lawyer fashion, asked Jesus to define the term “neighbor.” Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The crux of the parable is that the Samaritan was the only one who saw a man beaten nearly to death on the side of the road, and instead of ignoring him like the Levi and Priest who walked that way before, the Samaritan stopped to help, heal and restore the man. Jesus ended his story by asking the lawyer who was the neighbor to the man in need, to which the lawyer replied, “the one who showed him mercy.” Jesus told the lawyer to do likewise.[1]

 

To truly love, then, is a far more radical concept than what we have come to understand, and certainly more complicated than what is depicted in the media. It is more than kisses, flowers and sweet love messages honoring our beloved. Love is about showing mercy, meeting the needs of others, and brining them to a place of wholeness. And when both parties are engaged in loving each other, it can be a powerful force in the world. In other words, love transforms the beloved into a better person than they were before, and brings healing. Therefore, if we want to eradicate the hate that drives people to kill others and kill themselves, then we must learn how to love. This is not merely sentimentality, but an urgent warning. If we do not learn to love, no matter how radical it may seem, then we will succumb to the corrosive and corrupting nature of hate. That is a fate far more terrifying than any bomb or any gun. For what can be worse than a soul corrupted by hate?

 

–Until Next Time–

Palooke

[1] Luke 10: 25-37

4 Comments

  1. Yes, Brooke, yes! This is so on point. My heart aches when I hear these responses from people who call themselves Christian. It seems that in all of the political rhetoric, people have forgotten what Christ actually taught about situations such as these. We have forgotten that the Syrian refugees are our neighbors.

    Your post recalls a portion of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop Speech.” In recalling the story of the Good Samaritan, King said: “It’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked — the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?””

    The questions that the Levite and priest probably asked are legitimate questions and are not easy to answer. If we allow Syrian refugees to enter our country, perhaps some of them may be terrorists. Or maybe by letting them in we make ourselves vulnerable to attack in some other way. But Lord have mercy if we do not offer them refuge, what will happen to them? Lord have mercy on us! This is a very difficult dilemna, but if we call ourselves Christians, we must ask what would love call us to do?

    Another thing that troubles me is that we do not consider their refugees’ situation as if we were in their shoes. What if I was expelled from my home and had no where to go with my husband and baby girl? What if no one would open their doors to me? I believe I recall Jesus saying that we should do unto others what we would have done unto us.

    Thank you thank you thank you for sharing this, Brooke.

    • Thank you for this comment! I definitely thought about those words from Dr. King, and almost put them in this post. There were risk and legitimate fears that could have prevented the Levi and Priest from stopping, but the question is not what will happen to me if I help those in need, but what will happen to those in need if I do not help them. If were are to live together in peace, then We must learn to be neighbors.

  2. Brooke…EXCELLENT.

    It disturbs me to hear some of the things coming out of some of the individuals who seek to attain the highest position in our government. Only Christians allowed? Muslim databases? This plays right into the kind of stuff that the attackers seek to perpetuate.

    I truly believe that if we make true love our practice, we can truly change the world as William McDowell says. Like you’ve indicated, love is radical. Love is sacrificial. Love isn’t selfish. Love is really profound, and the fact that it is profound is evidence to me that love can change the world.

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