Meditation #2: Love

"The fruit of the Spirit is love..."

If I rejoice at your demise, then I have given myself over to hate. If I don't care about your demise, or worse, don't even bother to notice, then I have given myself over to the more subtle trap of indifference. Both are equally grave. And both are overcome by love. Love is not simply passively not hating. In its fullness, loves comes alive as Paul said in patience, kindness, humility, honor, etc. (1 Corinthians 13).

At the root of love is perception -- to see, to understand, to know. Bigotry, discrimination and condemnation all begin to dissipate as we come to know the other. It is awfully hard to hate someone or remain indifferent to them after hearing their story. When we see who God is and when we see who the person in front of us is, then we are moved to love.

Of course, sometimes we think we know God and we think we know the other, but we remain in hate or indifference. To truly know God and others, we must see beyond ourselves. The box we stuff the world into needs to be removed. We tend to view the world always in reference to ourselves. God is my God and what he has done for me. Others fall into my categories and their value is based on their relation to me. But, of course, God is completely beyond my comprehension; He is in and of Himself. And, others exist not in my world, but in God's world as their own created complete selves.

So, then, when we perceive God and others as they are, we are moved to love. This is extremely difficult to do which is why love is a fruit of the Spirit. We, by our humanly nature, cannot love. We cannot see, understand and know God and people, at least not all clearly. So, we are dependent on God's love. God, fully knowing us and fully knowing Himself was moved to love. We ask Him to make this move in us. We ask Him to turn our heads to Him and to others as we strive with all our might to continually do so. And, then, as we begin to perceive we ask him to move us to act upon our knowledge. We ask that in His love, we too might love.

Sanctification

I am sinner: selfish, prideful, apathetic, judgmental, often jealous, fearful, etc. But, of course, it's not just me; sin is a human condition. We all have our unique hang-ups, our deadly quirks. Even the saints among us have their faults. In fact, it is the saints who are most acutely aware of their total depravity. We all just can't seem to see past ourselves. Even when we unselfishly seek to do "good," our selfish desire for recognition creeps in, or we base our self-worth in being "good."

All we are called to do is "love God and love people." We are to see God and see others, but we walk about as we with a mirror constantly in front of us. We are naturally selfish. How, then, can Christ say "be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect."? How, then, can we love?

The short answer: because God first loved us. Our love always begins with God's love. It is the working of the Spirit in us that combats our fleshly nature and allows us to love. This isn't to say that we are not involved in the process; our will is very much involved but ultimately it is God's will to love that frees us to love Him back. Ultimately, we are utterly dependent on God's grace.

Grace. It is a mystery beyond all human comprehension. Jesus embodies grace. It took him all the way to the cross and up from the grave. It is that supreme act of grace, Christ's death and resurrection that frees us not only from death but also frees us to live.

This is sanctification: to turn from death to life. To turn from those things that destroy and corrupt ourselves and others to those things that bring about abundant life. The problem is that we have a misconstrued vision of what life is. Remember we are stuck looking at ourselves in the mirror. So, our idea of abundant life is warped into ideas of wealth, status, and personal satisfaction. This is not life.

Full life is to love God and others with all our heart, mind, strength and soul entering into God's perfect wholeness. It is grace that allows us to do this. It is grace that breaks the mirror in front of us.

But we can stand in the way of grace. We have a choice to make. Jesus says, "if you love me, keep my commands" (John 14:15). We are asked to pursue Christ with all we have. We are continually to try and live in His Way. Yet, we know we will never make it. Like Paul, even when we try to do good we will fall into evil. But we must still relentlessly try to follow his commands. Then Jesus says "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever."

We are never alone. Christ has offered us the Spirit. It is the Spirit that works within us carrying out God's grace putting our fleshly nature to the death. The Spirit brings us life. For the fruits of the Spirit are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." We can never reach these on our own.

How, then, can we love? We constantly seek to follow Christ commands. We listen, we read, we pray. We attempt to look to God in all things. We use our whole will to pursue Christ. But, then, as we continually fall short, we ask for God's grace. We ask for God's love to allow us to love. We ask for God's will to supplant our will. We ask for God's embrace to ever draw us closer to Him for on our own we are lost.