Wednesday, September 28, 2011

On Faithful Christian Love

There are days when all individual experiences feel as if written by Ibsen on a very bad day. Faith protects me from some very frightening moments such as when washing my hands quietly as to not disturb anyone and I somehow glance into the mirror above the basin and see semi-familiar eyes staring back at me in a completely uncharitable manner.

The Faithful Christian estate pulls along many cares, troubles, calamities, conversation topics, homemade remedies; it is one of the greatest of institutions; people of all ages, all abilities, all imaginations, all inspirations earnestly desire to enter it and learn some of the secrets and even gain eternal youth. In the modern group who with a sulfurous enthusiasm tease and taunt all who desire something so noble humility, charity, obedience with all types of troubling popular songs and videos of half unclad young people frolicking and encouraging others to frolic instead of discerning serious things such as feeding, clothing, sheltering the poor the wish to punch and torment those who promote goodness, holiness, kindness. Nature gives way to neon lights and fruity cocktails and microbreweries and everybody talks of Love; everybody looks through the multiplying glass at Love which often waits in someone else yard or lobby; love is quite pardonable, often questionable, very moveable; modern secular popular culture infused Love is a snickering feast of tasty unhealthy things with multisyllabic words like meningococcal, Benzalkonium chloride, dimethylammonium, varicella. Science and society and magazine publishers all have advice and knowledge and information to present with the hope of providing a sense of understanding or at least some levity or gaining a drink or two or winning a Nobel Peace Prize or a Pulitzer or an Oscar or an Emmy or a martini. This love encourages foolish conversations, foolish activities. There is something vile in the music and melancholy of this Love which escapes observation as longer and longer scientific words (some of which are so new that they do not appear in any dictionary) are employed to describe and promote it. Oh, how troubling all this is as people start out with one foot dangling from a barstool, end up in a strange hospital with out internet or cable television or fashionable French cuisine. Love with a foundation in the ethos and pathos of popular culture is flattering for a moment before becoming destructive, a movement carelessly, thoughtlessly choreographed with gestures, smiles, winks, sips, glances; this courtship with moral relativism remains a dangerous activity which can damage the heart, mind, soul; which can destroy goodness, kindness within a character, within a personality. But the other Love, the Faithful Christian Love offers something more, something more delicate yet universal, something selfless yet gratifying, something honorable yet majestic. The splendor of Love unconditional, rests in its very nature of not being limited, not being directed at just one person without a foundation of charity, humility, obedience, compassion, mercy in the hope of some reciprocal activity developing. The Faithful Christian Love exists within hearts, imaginations of those who are courageous enough to want to share it, who want to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. There is a great simplicity in this Love, a great contrariness as it leads us away from ourselves, away from our miseries, real and imagined, toward God, toward holiness. As Christians we are all called to be holiness, to be ambassadors for God, living and sharing the Word, encouraging others to believe.

With comfort and compassion we move forward, speaking and singing about goodness, holiness, kindness. The burdens of modern life with its conflicting messages trails behind us, trails behind, falls off. We’ll keep pulling along our cares, troubles, calamities, conversation topics, homemade remedies but we have prayer, we have God’s love, God’s grace, God’s mercy to help us.

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