Recently I flew across the country for the wedding of two dear friends from college. This is always a fascinating experience because it is a time when we reunite with old friends, make new ones, experience a friend's family and environment, and see a new part of the country. As I did this I was struck by the daily encounters and opportunities we have to practice what St. Paul advises here, to let our love be sincere [Romans 12:9]. In this case, it was opportunities with old friends and some new, but also opportunities with those I drove next to on the highway, the workers at men's warehouse who took my money (lots of it) to rent a tux, or even simply the random people we would encounter in the hotel elevator. Our world is so constantly in motion around us that we don't often notice these people, acknowledge them, or seek to love them. When we hear Scripture call us to love, we embrace the call as being towards our families, friends, and loved ones. How often, though, do we love those whom we only have one brief moment to encounter?
Our world is so broken and in need of love...do we bring that love? Tertullian, a man who lived a long time ago, remarked that the pagans were amazed at how the Christians loved one another. Today, this is still obvious; the question is whether we love those who we encounter outside of our church, those who may or may not believe what we do. In a world suffering from loneliness, brokenness, sadness, and despair we as Christians are to be a light. Christians should live in a way that joy and love flow forward from us, that even those we encounter briefly may know we are Christians by our love; not a superficial love reserved for certain people, but rather a deep love knowing that the perfect love of Christ has "cast out all fear." (1John 4:18) Often in the modern world the Church is seen as restrictive and no fun; do our lives reflect the joy and love of Christ in a way that counteracts this? Let us allow the love of God to penetrate our lives so deeply that we don't have to be downcast or run from the world, but that our presence in it would help all the people we encounter to know Jesus.
The poet W.H. Auden wrote "Love or perish." In a world so desperately in need of love, are we being that love, or are we letting ourselves perish? As Mitch Albom wrote in Tuesdays with Morrie, "Love wins. Love always wins." If we let love be the light in the darkness of our world, then the light truly will shine through the darkness (John 1:5). "A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended." (Batman, The Dark Knight Rises). Loving everyone is what will allow us to be a hero to a world in need of light.
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