It is almost sacrilegious to co-opt Love as a trope for our little effort at a revisionist ritual. Love is a theme of nearly every pop song and novel, the glue that holds our fractured community of humanity together, and even claimed to be synonymous with god in some quarters.
But I generally reject the concept of sacredness in its more secular meaning of unquestioning respect and assent. For me, everything deserves to be questioned, examined and studied and everything needs to be open to reassessment and revision. Still I’m not sure how open I am to challenging my faith that love heals and can defeat hate and evil. I feel like game theory’s tit for tat with forgiveness, the power of positive reinforcement and so many other quantifiable and repeatedly verified ideas suggest that love rules, but have not really proven the power of Love more generally.
Despite my railing against following one’s heart, against faith in general, I have to confess that my faith in Love almost absolute and my heart utterly certain of rightness of the way of Love. It alone among all our values has found a place in my philosophy that transcends reason and evidence. Mostly, it just feels so good, I am willing to abide the ambiguity, even hypocrisy of my worship of it.
Right now, with fear seeming to rule the day, with wounds so deep, and hope sliding away, I want more than ever to dig down and find love everywhere I can. Feed it, nurture it, share it, trust it, irrational as it may be, it is the only handle I can find to hang onto in this sea of uncertainty and confusion.
I don’t completely understand why Matthew 5:44, taken from the literal summation of his philosophy so shortly before his sacrifice, is not the watchword of that faith, and all those in that other tribe who have given their faith so much lip service. I don’t get how Klansmen, evangelicals, and so may others who so loudly declare their belief in Christ can ignore his most important, revolutionary and spiritual teaching:
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Come on, if a godless heathen like me can have faith in those words why cant you? Love is a close as we get to magic. Here’s hoping enough of us are casting its spell to save us from our worst angels.
Happy Holly Days!!!
HOLLY DAYS 