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In this workshop I was in the past two days, we talked about non violent communication, in which the underlying factor is natural giving... this idea of giving so completely of ourselves. Merton tells us that we are called to love selflessly... while (paradoxically) loving ourselves, as well. We are to love with a love that knows no boundaries; knows no good or evil. "If I am to love my brother [or sister], I must somehow enter deep into the mystery of God's love for him" (7).
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What does this mean to "enter deep into the mystery of God's love"? What does that look like? Could it mean loving someone so much, you love the hate right out of them? Could it mean just loving someone because they need to be loved? Could it mean loving someone with only the kind of love that God has? I don't know what kind of love that is... selfless love, sure. But we are called to take care of ourselves as well. Jesus entered into the world to be in relationship with people. {tangent coming} Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourself. Merton also reflects that we must love ourselves and tell ourselves the truth if we want to love others and tell the truth about God to others. God came to earth in flesh to help the common people understand what God's love is really like. God came for relationship. We are made for relationships. Jesus did not come out of obligation... it was not God's will to send Jesus into the world with the purpose of dying. That doesn't work... It doesn't work because then what does that say about God's natural giving? What does that say about grace? It isn't a gift. God HAS to do it just because God has to. No, God freely gives grace because God wants to... it is a gift. Jesus was a gift to us to help us understand. Jesus was not obligatory. I refuse to believe in a God that wills death and predetermines/predestines people for failure. {tangent over, i think}
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We have to be careful though. We can love freely... but we cannot love just for the sake of loving... Merton claims that creates hatred. To love blindly is to love selfishly because then we are loving for our own satisfaction, not because we find value in people or in our relationship with them through the Holy Spirit. "To love another is to will what is really good for him [or her]" (5) and Merton goes on to claim that this love must be rooted in truth... the truth of God's love.
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If we are truly loving with God's love, we know no limits... we are attentive to the truth... we are aware of the movement of the Holy Spirit. God infuses our relationships... God is the core of our relationships. "For it is in God we live and move and have our being."-- Acts 17:28
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How much of your love is selfless?
Who is the hardest to love in your life?
What sort of truth telling do you need to do?
Is your love rooted in what is really good for the other?
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