Dialectics of Love
Love
is an aesthetic virtue as long as it is idealistic but when demanded to be
perceived realistically it is morbid. Love is appealing as long as it is a noun
but ferociously provocative when it becomes a verb. To fall in love with the
idea of love and to live out love are dialectically opposites. The cross of
Christ is the visible expression of the dialectics of love. In such a milieu
the most difficult and revolutionary commandment of Jesus is to “Love your
enemies.” When we do not even know our neighbours, let alone loving them, the
divine mandate to “love our enemies” could sound obnoxious. But this is the
true price of discipleship and this is exactly what Jesus did. His attestation
of Messiah rests on the radical love he exhibited transgressing the then prevalent
laws at the expense of his life.
When the religious laws say not
to share meals with the downtrodden, Christ shares meals with sex workers with
unwashed hands. When the religious laws said not to do work on the Sabbath,
Christ healed those around him no matter the day. When the religious laws and
the Roman Empire endorsed a system of exploitation using necessary religious
ceremony, Christ, at the peak of his ministry, formed a whip, assaulted the
proto-bankers, overturned their tables, and cast them out of their place of
business. Not only is Jesus a criminal, Jesus is our Messiah not despite being
a criminal, but because he is one.[1]
The
Lection for today is Luke 6: 27 – 36 which talks about loving our enemies. The injunctions
of Jesus in this passage are quite strong. “Do good to those who hate you”; “bless
those who curse you”; “pray for those who abuse you” etc. Jesus even goes to
the extent of saying “if anyone strikes you on the cheek offer the also” (Luke
6: 29). This offering of the cheek is often interpreted as the epitome of
humility. An anecdote from the Desert Fathers would corroborate this.
A man possessed by the devil, who
was foaming terribly at the mouth, struck a monk on the cheek. The old man
turned and offered him the other. Then the devil, unable to bear the burning
humility, disappeared immediately.[2]
But
there also exists an alternate interpretation. To understand it better let us refer
to the parallel reference in the Gospel of Matthew 5: 39 which is a bit more
specific. “If anyone strikes you on the right
cheek turn the other also.” Walter Wink offers an intriguing interpretation
of this verse. One can only backhandedly slap the other on their right cheek.
He says;
A backhanded slap was a gesture
used to dishonour an inferior person. A husband was permitted to strike his
wife in this way, or a slave-owner his slave. But there were severe penalties
for striking an equal in this humiliating manner. Note that Matthew specifies
that it is the right cheek that is struck; Luke does not say. However, the
attacker would have used his right hand, since the left hand was used only for
unclean purposes. Thus, a backhanded blow would fall on the right cheek. Now,
if the victim turns the left cheek the attacker would have to strike with his
fist or open palm, not only with penalties involved but, more importantly, with
the implicit recognition of the equality of the victim.[3]
The
same concept applies on the demand of Jesus to go an extra mile “to not withhold
even your shirt from the one who takes away your coat” (Luke 6: 29). To be
precise, Jesus is inaugurating an alternate, transformative and just form of
retaliation which is not intrinsically evil. He puts forward a teaching that
love does not endorse passive receptivity. Resistance and retaliation are not antithetical
to love provided they are executed in a just manner. Now drawing inspiration
from this vantage point we could reinterpret the aforementioned idea of humility
proposed by the Desert Fathers. Metropolitan Anthony Bloom could be of help as
he writes;
The word ‘humility’ comes from
the Latin word ‘humus’ which means fertile ground… Humility is the situation of
the earth. The earth is always there, always taken for granted, never
remembered, always trodden on by everyone, somewhere we cast and pour out all
the refuse, all we don’t need. It’s there, silent and accepting everything and
in a miraculous way making out of all the refuse new richness in spite of
corruption, transforming corruption itself into a power of life and a new
possibility of creativeness, open to the sunshine, open to the rain, ready to
receive any seed we sow and capable of bringing thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a
hundredfold out of every seed.[4]
Lent
is a time to proactively love as Christ did. To love is to be creative
especially in resisting and retaliating justly when there occurs a violation of
the image of God. To love is to stand by the victim in his/her pursuit of
justice. To love is to transgress the parochial laws that breed discrimination.
To love is to give priority to the intrinsic value of creation than to our
insatiable greed of development. I conclude with an excerpt of Most Rev. Bishop
Michael Curry’s sermon – “The Power of Love”;
“Think and imagine a world where
love is the way.
Imagine our homes and families
where love is the way. Imagine neighbourhoods and communities where love is the
way.
Imagine governments and nations
where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the
way.
Imagine this tired old world
where love is the way. When love is the way - unselfish, sacrificial,
redemptive.
When love is the way, then no
child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.
When love is the way, we will let
justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing
brook.
When love is the way, poverty
will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
When love is the way, we will lay
down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.
When love is the way, there's
plenty good room - plenty good room - for all of God's children.
Because when love is the way, we
actually treat each other, well... like we are actually family.
When love is the way, we know
that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of
God.
My brothers and sisters, that's a
new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family."[5] Amen
Prayers
Dn.
Basil Paul
[3] Walter
Wink, Engaging the Powers: Discernment
and Resistance in a World of Domination (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992),
175-76.
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