Love is messy

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Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount is not about maintaining the status quo. “Bad” people didn’t kill Jesus; conventional wisdom crucified him. Jesus taught an alternative way of being instead of the maintenance of the social order. When we can weep, when we can identify with the humble ones, when we can make peace, when we can be persecuted and still be joyful—then we are doing it right. The Beatitudes are describing what holiness looks like in the kingdom of God.

          Richard Rohr   Daily Meditations 7/16/2026

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Who are the “bad” ones?

It is interesting that it wasn’t the radical left

That killed Jesus

 

It was the conservatives.

The ones determined to preserve the status quo

The law-and-order folk

 

Make Israel Great Again

Make Israel a Holy Nation!

 

There was no room in that time, in that place

For a radical

Not even one whose message was radical love

Especially not one whose message was radical love

 

Radical love is messy.

It is inconvenient

Maybe even risky

 

Love the lepers?

Love the Romans?

Love the Tax Collectors, and the women of ill repute

The poor?

Love the “lazy moochers?”

The women?

 

That is not good for the bottom line

That is not how you amass power

 

Love often meets resistance from power.

It should be expected, really.

 

And the question is, what do we do

When we try to love

When we try to resist injustice and inequity

And the system resists us!

 

We can get angry

We can feel offended

We can respond in kind

With name-calling, harshness, personal attacks

 

I do

All too often

 

And we should resist!

There is no question about that

Paul didn’t say, “be an observer.  Look at evil from a distance”

Paul said, “overcome evil with good”

 

So we have to stay in the mix

But we have to stay in the middle of the hate

Chaos and conflict

 

As people who feel deeply

Care deeply

Act compassionately

But keep our joy

 

When we are resentful, retributive

When we see ourselves as victims

When we carry a sense of affront

 

Our resistance turns into something other.

Than resistance. 

We become

Part of the problem

 

I am not sure I can do it

But I am sure I am called

To be joyful

always