Love is all there is

Ah, Mary mother of Jesus!

You were magnificent, for in your humility you saw what most of us cannot see.

That the Sacred seeks, always, always, to make all things new!

To turn things upside down, to turn us inside out.

 

This is a profound truth.

Reminding us that we do not know what we think we know.

That we cannot hold on to old truths, just because we (and others) thought they were true.

 

“He hath put down the mighty from their seat,

and hath exaulted the humble and meek.”

 

He hath filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich hath sent away empty.”

 

Step aside Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk,

the world you have created is living on borrowed time.

 

The Kingdom of God is near!

 

Near, but not here!

It has to be dragged into existence.

Not I believe by some cataclysmic intervention of “God”,

but by the persistence of those who are willing to empty themselves,

to let go of power and wealth and privilege,

to turn away from what was and into God’s new thing.

 

It has to be made real on earth as it is in heaven

by those who love God and love their neighbor and love themselves.

 

It is not a matter of power and wealth and dominance.

It is a matter of sacrifice and generosity and humility.

 

Think the cross.

 

The kingdom comes as we enter into the pain of others.

As we are pained ourselves by the ills of the world.

 

This cannot be selective pain.

We have to feel it all.

 

A friend of mine insisted that we feel the pain of the

“60 million terminated souls in the US since 1973.”

 

Yes (he was talking about abortion).

 

But we must also feel the pain of the women who are driven to make such

a painful choice.

We must also feel the pain of the children, born unwanted,

the pain of the children abandoned by politicians who legislated their birth,

but left them in poverty,

hungry, homeless, abused, poorly educated, without health care, without value.

 

We do not get to pick our pain.

We must feel the pain of the black person,

the Native American,

the immigrant.

 

We must feel the pain of the person who thinks they must carry a gun to be safe,

and the person who thinks the government is “out to control them.”

The pain of the person who thinks America needs saving from evil socialists,

and the person who feels the far-right is going to destroy all that is kind and good.

 

We must feel the pain,

enter into it and take it on,

overcoming evil with good,

 

Yeah, I know!

Random acts of kindness seem pretty pathetic sometimes.

But it is through acts of kindness that love works.

In the end, it is all we have.

 

That phone call to the friend with Covid (whom we told, so many times to get vaccinated).

The simple offer of prayer.

The casserole.

The smile.

The moment of silence (when we want to let loose)

 

It seems sometimes as those who are tearing the world apart only have one tool.

Hate

Perhaps we only have one tool as well.

Love.

 

The love that comes to us and flows through from Love.

Come Spirit, come!