Love Is Something That You Do

A No-Matter-What Love

The invasion of the Ukraine by Russian forces this week raises the spectre of war and the bellicose chatter of ‘interventions,’ ‘incursions,’ and the abhorrent euphemism of ‘collateral damage.’ Surely there is an ongoing need to hear (and act upon) Jesus’s imperative to ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven’ (MT 5:44-45). Yes, it is a challenging word, but it is really the only way forward to receive the ‘shalom of God’. Brother Carlo Carretto understands it well when he journals from the wild,

When Jesus tells me, “Love your enemies,” he indicates the maximum possibility and capacity for loving; and at the same time he offers me the maximum hope of having peace on earth. By besieging my enemy with love and not with weapons, I facilitate in him and myself the possibility of seeing that day dawn when “calf and lion-cub will feed together and a child will put his hand into the viper’s lair, and none will harm the other.” (Carlo Carretto)

Let’s reflect this week on our ‘maximum possibility and capacity for loving’ (a no-matter-what love) as we pray over our broken world.