I spent Saturday listening to former prisoners share with prison volunteers the impact their ministry had on their lives. They are clear that their lives were made truly new by the love they came to know through the volunteers' compassion and acts of love for them. Now, we are two days on, at 9/11, a term that has solidified in our collective consciousness as more than an annually recurring date. It is a reminder that there is still a great deal of animosity among certain human groups. This might make us fearful about the awful potential for terrorist attacks. Whatever terrorism means to us, it seems to give expression to an intense hatred that goes to new lengths with unspeakably violent acts on other human beings.
In contrast, the readings of this past weekend speak of reconciliation, love, and fraternal correction. These concepts overlap, since fraternal correction is a movement toward reconciliation motivated by sincere love. In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes a profound observation that Jesus had made before him: All of the commandments are summed up in these words: love one's neighbor as oneself. Love seems like a weak dynamic compared to the white-hot hatred that terrorism expresses and the immensely destructive power it unleashes. How can love withstand it?c
I don't have an answer for that. Yet, the world is not changed by terrorism. Rather, terrorism hardens and deepens stances of violent opposition, and leads to even greater disregard and violence. Love, on the other hand, has the power to transform lives. How is this possible? It's quite simple, really. In Jesus Christ, God-among-us made the ultimate sacrifice of love by giving his own life Because he did that, we have been freed through this free gift from the need to do it for ourselves. We are not worthy of God's love and we cannot make ourselves worthy through our own efforts. Only through the self-giving of Christ can we be in communion with God. This free gift frees us in turn to bring others into God's loving embrace mediated through our love.
Sunday's Gospel acclamation sums it up well for us:"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation". In what can seem like an increasingly violent world of growing animosity, what will I do with the power God has entrusted to me with the message of reconciliation?