The job, is love

“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.”

                                                                        Thomas Merton

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We only have on job

To love others

Not just to love others

But to love others without asking whether or not they are worthy

The Bible calls this agape

With agape we don’t love someone because they deserve it

With agape we don’t demand value

We create value

Once when I was younger

And my daughter a little child

There was a doll named Heidi

A gift from a much admired cousin

Named Heidi

Heidi had no value

She was a stuffed triangle with felt feel and hands

Glued directly to the body

Yarn for hair

And a painted face

She played “thank heavens for little girls”

One day, as we were 30 minutes

Into a 9 hour drive to grandmother’s house

My daughter suddenly exclaimed

“where’s Heidi”

Where indeed!?

Nowhere

And so, even though we had a long drive ahead

We turned back

To get Heidi

That doll of no value

I would not have returned for my wallet

But …..

That doll of no value

Had immense value

Because it was loved

That is agape

And that is what we are called to have

Agape love

We are called to have that love for the dirty and frightened

Families at the border

For the children in cages

We are called to have that kind of love for the homeless person

Asleep on a grate

And for the addicted person

Who has wet himself once again

We are called to have that kind of love for poor people

Rich people

White people

Colored people

Ill people

Old people

Young people

All people

We don’t love them because they have value

From a worldy perspective

We love them and give them value through that love

They become precious

And I suspect, so do we

One cannot love in that way

Without being changed

We are transformed by our caring

Our giving

Our kindnesses

Each of us will find this love a challenge in our own way

I have no trouble loving immigrants

I have no trouble with people who have mental illness

Or who are old (duh)

I have no trouble with the poor

Or the addicted

But I have people it is hard to love

I have trouble with Trump

Those who embrace racism

But I suspect when Jesus says

“love your neighbor”

(with agape love)

He means them too

And so I cannot be arrogant

Or smug

I cannot judge

I can only seek to be loved by agape love

Filled with agape love

And give agape love

It is a complicated thing indeed

There are boundaries in there

And even Jesus had his moments when he said

Essentially

“People wake up!!!!!”

“Enough!!!”

Loving doesn’t not mean challenging lies

Resisting evil

But it does mean

Seeking not destruction

But restoration

And reconciliation

I know!  Right?

But still, there it is

Agape is not for the faint of heart

So this day, I pray for love

I pray for transforming love

I prayer for enough love to embrace the world

And I pray

That even in the most tattered of hearts

The most empty of souls

And I prayer that even in my dark and angry places

Love can be born