Jesus calls us to love God and also other people. How? It has nothing to do with infatuation and maybe little to do with emotion. Can this love be mostly an attitude? Can it be, to begin with, an acceptance of our common predicament as created earthly things? Other people, other animals, rocks, plants—we are all here on Earth and relatively helpless. This attitude accepts that a loving and omnipotent power has created everything.
We are powerless and ignorant on this tiny planet. Yet, we are granted a modicum of knowledge and power within a limited scope. From birth, we continuously and instinctively grasp for these, whatever power and understanding we can acquire, not knowing how puny we are. We can do some neat things and figure out how some things work; we can figure out how to live, but we can’t prevent ourselves from dying.
Jesus came to help us learn how to live better. His command to love gives us a glimpse of the Creator’s perspective. Love is a strategy for making the most of our time on Earth. Acting out this love is not easy. Mostly, we don’t even get what Jesus means.
Here are a few misunderstandings:
- Love is the “in-love” emotion of sexual attraction.
- Love is a family bond, and everyone else is, at best, second-rate.
- Love of other people is how we fend off loneliness.
- Love of country validates wariness of foreigners.
- Love of a hobby gives us a reason to live.
No wonder we are mixed up about what Jesus wants! His kind of love seems to require that we get nothing in return. It isn’t a bargain or trade-off. An emotional benefit is secondary. This love attitude goes along with the Buddhist idea of nonattachment, which is not a lack of love but rather unconditional love, with no need for anything in return.
Here are some effects of Jesus love:
- I love you even if you don’t love me.
- I love you even though I don’t like things about you.
- I love you because the Creator loves you.
- I keep trying to love even while I keep failing at it.
- I keep trying to love, even though my life is not what I wish it were.
- I feel stronger when I adopt the love attitude.
The most challenging part is that Jesus apparently wants us to love sacrificially and put others before ourselves. He does not mean denying ourselves completely. However, since the normal human tendency is to be selfish, he stresses that his way is the opposite.
The love attitude sharpens spiritual senses. It helps us intuit that mountains, deserts, and oceans point us to a much higher power. It gives us hope by bringing others beside us who agree that love is The Way.
The love attitude refuses to fake it. Earth has many unhappy situations that can seem hopeless. Believing in a Creator does not make evil disappear. We are called to love even when we all suffer, and evil seems to triumph. We pray for these enemies, not that they will succeed in hurting us, but that the Creator will reveal how pathetic they are before him and cause them to repent.
A person suffering injustice may wonder about this so-called loving Creator. With our acute spiritual senses, we must help bring relief, not a sermon, but actual physical first aid. We come alongside because we know the Creator loves every one of us and does not want any to be lost. We give succor, respect their dignity, and we listen to whatever that person shares.
Jesus said The Way would not be easy, teaching that we must take up our cross and follow him. Our best hope to succeed in this difficult task is to strive with others beside us, bearing their crosses and following him. Even Peter could not do it alone. Maybe the Spirit of the Creator is most happy with us when we live out the kind of love Jesus spoke about.
However, we must not pretend. When loving has worn us out, we must admit it. The loving attitude insists on authenticity. We shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set us free. Love will encourage us, and we can count on others who walk the same path to carry us when we cannot walk on our own. Later, we may be called on to lift other weary travelers.
If this love were only an attitude, it would seem easy. However, the attitude is about facing the direction the Spirit points, seeing with the eyes of Jesus, and being prompted to act. In our human frailty, we often feel inadequate. The Spirit asks only that we do what we can. With others alongside us, we may notice that we can do more than we first thought. Yet, the Spirit also wants us to be satisfied with little acts of love and not to let our pride tempt us to think we have a more significant part to play. Maybe our small actions are more important than we realize. In humility, we let the Spirit lead, and we try to suppress our human tendency to guess the future.
Maybe the artists don’t get enough credit for helping point the way. “What’s it all about, Alfie? Is it just for the moment we live?” Listen to Dionne Warwick and see what you feel. Or Bruce Cockburn’s The Gift.