love and power

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Both love and power are necessary building blocks of God’s peaceful realm on earth. Love utterly redefines the nature of power. Power without love is mere brutality (even in the church), and love without power is only the sentimentality of individual lives disconnected from the Whole. The gospel in its fullness holds love and power together, creating new hope and healing for the world.

          Richard Rohr

Preface to Near Occasions of Grace (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), xvi.    

 

Ah, those who hold power as the ultimate end

Who seek it.

Grasp it,

Abuse it.

 

Who wield power without love.

 

Love cannot be the servant of power

Power must be the servant of love

 

Power without love is expressed in cruelty and control

It is violent.

It is an old landlord, one of great zeal for his religion

Stabbing a 6-year-old boy to death

It is Christians rejoicing a border wall

It is Christian leaders lying, and committing fraud, and promoting violence

It is a candidate for President claiming all Palestinians are anti-Semitic and do not deserve our compassion.

It is Christians excusing the violence of Hamas because of the oppression of Netanyahu

 

When power is the servant of love

Children are embraced and nurtured, not stabbed.

Immigrants are welcomed

Politicians tell the truth, are ethical, and above all else,

Seek to enact policies that benefit all, that promote the common good.

People who lie, are dishonest, abusive, and promote hate are not even considered as a viable candidate for President

Compassion is for all

 

When power is the servant of love

We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house those without homes

Pay for good medical care for all

Educate our children

Provide adequate mental health care

Take care of planet Earth

 

We see the faces of those who are in danger

And in need

And we use power

 

To heal

To restore

To reconcile

 

I am tired of war

I am tired of lies

I am tired of the greedy rich becoming richer

And the poor being neglected

I am tired of our planet being wounded by our need for profit

I am tired of CEOs who make more in a day than their workers,

Saying they “can’t afford to pay more”

 

We need to let love redefine power

Redefine greatness

 

The leaders of the American right

(you know their names) are, if power serves love, is not great

Their vision of America is not great

The other side is better (but frankly not much)

 

It is time we listen to the prophets of old

Who as a person decried the worship of power

And the failure of love

 

That is what sin is.

It is the failure of love

Salvation is when love goes to work

And life is healed

 

Hope, as Norman Wirzba suggests

Is when love is “all in all”

And heaven and earth meet

And life is heaven

 

There is a time to love, we are told

And a time to hate

 

We have tried hate

Perhaps it is time for love