Loving Kindness Giver

 “Whenever I groan within myself and think how hard it is to keep writing about love in these times of tension and strife which may at any moment become for us all a time of terror, I think to myself, "What else is the world interested in?" What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships. God is Love. Love casts out fear. Even the most ardent revolutionist, seeking to change the world, to overturn the tables of the money changers, is trying to make a world where it is easier for people to love, to stand in that relationship with each other of love. We want with all our hearts to love, to be loved. And not just in the family but to look upon all as our mothers, sisters, brothers, children. It is when we love the most intensely and most humanly, that we can recognize how tepid is our love for others. The keenness and intensity of love brings with it suffering, of course, but joy too because it is a foretaste of heaven."

~Dorothy Day

The quote above could have been, and may have been, written this morning. Sighs too deep for words prevail in this world with each act of violence, with each bullet, bomb, attack and cry.

In the last few weeks especially beginning with the October 7 attacks in Israel and then sporadic but pointed acts of violence and hate crimes intensified for me over the last few days with the violence in Lewiston Maine.

I was taken back to my pastoral education there at Central Maine Medical Center where I learned all too quickly that guns and motorcycles were leading causes of death…next to heart attacks. 

A part of my heart remains in that town and cracked open on Thursday.

But in that brokenness and all the other assaults on emotions I found myself praying about love more intensely and intentionally. 

Admittedly I am preparing a sermon on the Two Great Commandments and Love, but the timelessness and timeliness of that felt somehow synchronous. And so it was in that context that Dorothy Day’s words felt like they were pouring out of me as well as flowing into my weakened soul.

Love is the balm in Gilead. We get self conscious talking about it and yet we know that whatever it is has miraculous mysterious power. Drop by drop I hope to become more aware and intentional about at least showing acts of loving kindness. I believe that in its albeit smallness is what I can be in this world - a loving kindness giver. I pray that will be my identity. I pray it will be enough.