What is perfection in love? Love your enemies in such a way that you would desire to make them your brothers … For so did He love, Who hanging on the Cross, said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
~St. Augustine of Hippo
Beloved, let us Love one another, for Love is from God, and whoever Loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not Love does not know God, because God is Love. In this the Love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is Love, not that we have Loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so Loved us, we also ought to Love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we Love one another, God abides in us and His Love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and He in God. So we have come to know and to believe the Love that God has for us. God is Love, and whoever abides in Love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is Love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in Love. We Love because He first Loved us. If anyone says, “I Love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not Love his brother whom he has seen cannot Love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever Loves God must also Love his brother.
~ John, The Beloved Disciple, in 1 John 4
Oh beloved, it is true.
Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within that illuminates the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the human face. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And He is within us all.
~Meister Eckhart
But, the truth is even deeper. We have no idea how to stay in the place that Meister Eckhart describes. We are so distracted by the wrong that we ourselves do, and the wrong that is done to us by others.
Oh, it is not that we are not actually hurt. It is what we do with the hurt. People are crude and foul in the way that they interact with each other. We dress it up, but really what is happening in our interactions with each other, is nothing much more than a group of wild animals fighting over a bit of flesh or territory.
And, in our base instincts, we tear each other to bits in our fear. We want to get back to that center, the place within us – that really DOES exist, but we have no idea how to do it on our own.
This fool of a writer comes from a background in which i have been abused in a wide range of ways. Have no doubt, my curriculum vitae of sin fills out the list of the seven deadlies with deadly efficiency. And for those transgressions and failures, i will blame no one. But, my failures are not the point of this entry.
Rather, the truth of the matter, is that over the past twenty years i have endured the betrayal by close coworkers, my dad, a spouse, and a number of other people. The injuries they have put on me are real. They are deep. And, instead of numbing me to pain, they have set my “feelers” on edge. Years of (often) doing the right thing, have set forth an impetus to anger when others continue to rage against me.
And this is deadly.
Can we see it?
There is no way back to the center, except down through the prison cell of our own unforgiveness. For, not only is unforgiveness a prison cell. It is a cell out in the outer wastelands of life. It is actually a “locking out,” that is, more of banishment from real life. Oh yes, we are stuck with ourselves, and all alone.
However, upon giving up the right to a better past, and letting the wrong done towards us be something that Love Himself will respond to One Day, we can break through the outer perimeters of the wasteland, and move on towards where we want to go.
And, as we let go of our charges against others, we get a little closer to how things really are supposed to work. We find that our fear of rejection and pain is no longer useful. For, in utilizing these tools, we will only break ourselves out of the inner boundaries we have just crossed. So, instead, we look at the people who once hurt us, and we find something we didn’t really expect.
They are just as scared and hurting as we were.
So then, out from within us comes an impulse that can only happen when the fear we wielded is surrendered. We find, instead of fear, we can seek the good of others. We find, instead of bitterness, we can wish for the peace of those who hurt us. And, once that happens, something astounding happens.
We come up on another boundary, over which we look out and see something we never expected. It is not another dry wasteland on the other side of the perimeter we crossed. Rather, it is a verdant plain that is deeper and greener the farther in we look. And from the looks of it (our eyes do not deceive us, either) we find that it goes on forever towards deeper and brighter and more Life.
We have found the fields of forever and they are drenched in the very fabric of His existence. We have found True Love. It is nothing we expected. It is full of all the people who used to hurt us, and be hurt by us – but that is no longer the point. Rather, as the fear is gone, there is only each of us together with Him, leaping forward into The Life He has ever wanted for us.
So, are you hurting? Are you having trouble forgiving? Tonight is your night to begin the process. For, in staying bitter, you (and this fool of a writer) will only lock ourselves further out of the life we desire.
Moved by the perfection of His holy love, God in Christ substituted Himself for us sinners. That is the heart of the cross of Christ.
~ John Stott
