But I say to you, the Lord says, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you. Why did he command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God. Maximus the Confessor
Imagine a reverse wedding ceremony, where the climax occurs as two people stare into each other’s eyes and declare for all to hear, I don’t.
The bride’s wedding dress is blackened with soot. Thorns are strewn in place of flowers. Writhing snakes replace candles. On either side of the aisle there are opposing forces who shout at each other.
And leading the ceremony is zombie-like creature, who says, “Dearly be-hated, we are fractured here today to part these two by breaking the bonds of love and fueling the fires of fury.”
There is a reason why we do not see such ceremonies – they are devoid of beauty.
Weddings are filled with beauty, and set the stage of hope that love will forever bind two people.
Reverse weddings, where two people decide that they are enemies – whether husband and wife, or father and son, two former friends, or perfect strangers who meet on conflicting terms, are filled with darkness. And yet, such ceremonies occur in the privacy of our hearts.
We decide that someone in our lives, whether the crazy neighbor next door or the ruthless dictator of another country, is our enemy. We know that they have no good will toward us specifically or humanity in general, and so we feel justified in assuming the same posture toward them – precisely because we are right and they are wrong. And right must prevail.
Yet perhaps the real reason that we declare war on this enemy of ours is because they have robbed us of beauty and love. And so, wounded by this loss, we exacerbate the issue by living in hate, robbing ourselves – and the world around us – of beauty and love.
We become that which we hate in an effort to extinguish it and hope that beauty returns when the smoke clears.
If we truly wish lost beauty to return, then we must stoke its fire – both within and without.
Source Scripture
Matthew
Matthew 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-28,32-36
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Extras
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For Further Contemplation
Recommended Reading
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom