Extreme love

In thinking about love, as I have said before, we tend towards a mushy expression of romanticism which has been conveyed to us by the ever helpful media and social mores of the world. In coming to terms with love as it is expressed by Christ and God we have to enlarge our view and overcome our own inbuilt biases. The passage from 1 Corinthians (15.35-50) outlines what appears to be totally un-achievable for those that are mortal. The very fact that we are mortal seems to suggest that we cannot achieve that which is only available to the spiritual. Yet why would Paul suggest this if it were not achievable within our own mortal bodies.

The issue perhaps is how we understand and how we cope with the feeling and ideology of love in the first place. Too often perhaps we relegate it to a forgotten world of pinks and hearts and softness that enfolds us in comfort and bliss. However, the love that is from God is not this marshmallow style of love. Yes, there is an element of protection and forgiveness but there is a much harder aspect that forms and moulds us into something other. Let's look for example at the speech that Joseph makes to his brothers in Genesis (45.3-11). We see this often as a lovely reunion of a family split apart from each other and forgiveness on the part of Joseph. Midrashic sources delve much deeper into the psychological processes that are in play here. From these sources comes an understanding that this speech is a result of an about face almost in Joseph's thinking that has been brought about by the impassioned speech from Judah in the foregoing chapter. Joseph has been trying to piece together a story over the period of his interaction with the family, a story that he casts over the familial members and creates the conditions for them to participate in. Yet, following Judah's speech he comes to the realisation that his story will bring shame upon the family, a shame that will cause even greater divisions than have already been wrought. His love for them makes him abandon the "revenge" and holds out a branch that will draw the tattered remnants of the dispersing family into a whole despite the cost to him. It is this love, which breaks us down, so that we can reform ourselves and our families into a new understanding.

Christ offers us an alternate way of looking at the other through the eyes of love. In Luke's gospel (6.27-38) the actions of love are broken down into what can only be described in this day and age as the "Idiots Guide to..". Perhaps, this is actually all we are good for, being spoon fed the requirements of this extraordinary love that comes from God. Unless we are prepared to unpack ourselves and understand our agendas like Joseph, who almost mid story, returns to himself and begins to understand the sacrifice it takes to re-draw the family. Christ re-draws humanities response to the other on the cross through his sacrifice, making holy, and re-drawing our relationships in the midst of chaos. The steps are simple. They are laid out in black and white in Luke's gospel (Lk. 6.27-38). These are the simple steps that lead us into the moment of re-drawing our lives around love. It is we who have to sacrifice the story that we build around ourselves in order to accommodate the stories that are told by others. In the same way the other also sacrifices there story once they have heard our re-interpretation of our lives so that they can do the same for themselves and have the courage to return to the basic format of love that is acceptance of self and other.

Love that transforms our lives is harder than we think

In taking the route of extreme love we open ourselves up to transformation. In re-writing our story we understand what has been hidden by the mushiness of our understanding. We transform ourselves so that we become spirit. The malleability and ease with which the spirit is accepting becomes our physical home. We are able to transcend the limitations that our earthly life places upon us and are able to embrace the strange, the unusual, the other in an accepting love that is not only transformative but also deeply protective and life giving.