Summertime is always a fun time in my house. It can prove to be a true challenge. Being in the 21st-century it's a bit fun to watch my children have first world problems. Like any other youngster from a lower middle-class family my children love video games. Myself I never had video games. I know I'm dating myself here, but I believe the closest thing I had to a video game was when my parents bought a Commodore 64, and I got to play "Where in the World is Carmen Sanediego." Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't want my kids to have fun, however I find it important to balance their screen time versus non-screen time in a ratio of 1 to 10. Every summer there is always that moment where I tell them that, "Hey it's time to shut the screens off now." Inevitably one of my children will flop down on the couch with a disgusted look on their face, their arms crossed and staring as if they have no idea what dimension they are in. Of course I will ask them, "What's wrong?"
"I'm bored", they will reply.
"Really?" I reply, "That's great! I have plenty of chores that need done around the house if you're bored. You can help me."
"No!", They will reply with such fervor I swear I can feel the walls in the house shaking.
I will sit down with them and then explain that they have a multitude of things to break their boredom that day. After rattling off a long list of things that they can do and reminding them that they have multiple brothers, a sister and friends that they can play with they usually come around and run off and have lots of fun. So often my children see what's right in front of their face, and they do not realize the beautiful world that surrounds them. Funny thing is I see many adults who have the same perception of life. As human beings we want to belong. We find a group of friends or coworkers and we stay in that tight knit group. Venturing out and meeting new people is not a common practice I see in this day and age. Belonging to a group is great. It gives you a sense of belonging and a home away from home. All too often though we become satisfied and our close knit network becomes a closed network.
Recently here in America we have experienced a horrible tragedy. In Orlando Florida 50 people were killed and nearly 50 more were injured in a terrorist attack. Social media is fired up right now over arguments of gun control, terrorists, LGTB and other such issues. When such horrible, drastic things happen deep rooted beliefs rise, and instead of unifying in supporting each other we seem to tear ourselves apart. One could easily sit and examine the tragedy and come to a variety of conclusions why it occurred. For me I see a situation that displays a lack of love and misunderstanding. I know many will read my words and scoff. I will be called a hippie, pie in the sky idiot or worse.
It's quite all right I'm used to it.
Fact is, I'm a Christian, and to me the situation seems simple. Jesus teaches me to love. Jesus teaches that I should love everyone that I meet. I am Catholic, and we get a lot of flack, but my Catholicism teaches me that I should also love everyone I meet and discriminate against no one. Jesus preaches something that is rather countercultural, especially in this day and age. Jesus teaches me that I should love my enemy and pray for them. The world today says that I should get even. The world today says that everything should be fair. The world today seems like it's very much in line with the Old Testament teaching, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Problem is, that teaching is a bit misunderstood.
God told us, "an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth", so that we would know the maximum to which we could punish, not the minimum. God wants us to love. That's why he sent his son Jesus down to earth, to teach us to love. I am sure that someone out there at this point would remark that I am trying to tell you that no one should ever defend themselves.
That is not what I'm saying, and that is not what God teaches.
God wants us to defend ourselves against evil. God wants us to protect those that we love. Know this though, Jesus came to teach us to love our enemies. Some might be wondering how that's supposed to work in the world today. It starts by saying hello to strangers on the street, locking eyes with them smiling and saying hello. It starts with small gestures like helping elderly women in the grocery store parking lot and helping her put her bags in her car. It involves helping those who are in need, whether that means giving money to the homeless man on the corner, donating time at the soup kitchen or helping people at the local food pantry. It means reaching out to that person whom you know very well or maybe very little who is gone through a major loss in their life. It means "pressing the pause button" when you hear someone say something you vehemently disagree with. It means holding your thoughts, listening to what the other has to say and then replying with compassion. I love America because we open the door to everyone. Even though some are scared and believe that we should alter our immigration policy right now we still allow immigrants from all over the world. That is a form of compassion. Do we need to be careful and make sure that we protect all who are here now?
Yes, but I do not believe that that means we should just blindly close our borders to those in need with no regard for pain and suffering in the world.
If we can put a man on the moon, create the Internet and solve worldwide medical problems, we can surely develop a system that will prevent evil from entering our country.
Jesus asked us to love our neighbor. Why, because when you love someone it's harder for them to want to put a bullet in your head. You are no longer a faceless soulless creature which matters not if you are destroyed. If you love your neighbor and build relationships, you become a human being to your neighbor. You turn into a person that has a face, a soul, you become someone that matters. Does that mean that if you love everyone you meet and you pray for everyone you meet, that you will extinguish all evil in the world?
No it does not, but I think you will be surprised by how much evil would recede in the world.
Think about someone you love very much. Picture them in your mind. Think about some of the beautiful times you've had with that person. Now, how would you react if you had a strong disagreement with them?
Would you treat them with utter disrespect?
Would you spit in their face?
Would you physically beat them?Would you put a gun to their head and pull the trigger?
Would you chop off their head while they're still alive?
I believe the reason that Jesus wants us to love all and pray for all, especially our enemies, is that if we can learn to have a connection with our enemies, we can overcome our differences and if we can't we can at least disagree in a manner which is with compassion. There is so much you can do to a person if you have no compassion for them.
If you do not have compassion for someone, they are no longer a human being to you, they are just another creature like a bug. How many times have you paused and thought twice about squishing a bug that was bothering you?
We have enough hate and contempt in this world. Really, how has anyone ever benefited from hate and contempt? How has anyone come to benefit from completely detaching themselves from society in general? Jesus wants us to breed love and compassion. He wants each of us to take the time to find value in every person we meet. Jesus wants us all to be interconnected. Why? Tell me the last time you felt unhappy when you were in a compassionate relationship with someone that was working well. At the end of the day God wants us to be happy. God knows that will be happy when we have loving compassionate relationships with everyone we meet. Loving someone is not hard. Loving someone you don't know isn't really that hard. What makes it hard is our ego. We want our way our idea to be right. We want to chuck the idea of pluralism aside and for everyone to believe and feel just like we do.
The ideal that Jesus wanted us to achieve is not easy. We definitely have a lot of work to do. But God is not just hanging us out to dry, letting us figure it out for ourselves. Every day the Holy Spirit is waiting to enter your life. The Holy Spirit has gifts to share that can help you overcome anyone and anything. But like most things in life, you will never receive unless you ask. God doesn't hold anything back from you unless it is not good for you.
I am sure that there are some at this point wondering why God would let horrible things happen. The answer is free will. God doesn't force us to do anything. God let's us choose. Just as a misguided young man chose to enter nightclub and kill at free will, God allows us to choose how we will react to it. Will we pause and decide to react with compassion, or will we let our hatred boil and respond in rage? Will we seek those who committed crimes and find justice, or will we carpet bomb cities looking for retribution?
When my children are "bored" because I won't let them play video games they have two choices, they can sit by themselves and stew and try and figure out how they will get even with me, or they can walk through the house, find one of their siblings, have fun and love. Ironically I never see them having any fun when they sit and stew, yet it only takes mere moments before giggles and laughing flow through the house when they decide to spend time with those they choose to love.
Love is a choice not a feeling.
What will we choose?
Anyone can stick with what they know.
A brave person reaches out.
Courageous are those who breakthrough barriers and spread love on this beautiful earth.
MT 5:43-48
Jesus said to his disciples:“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
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