Usually on the feast days of saints, the church selects for the Office of Readings some writing of the saint. It is short and yet it is intended to be a snapshot of the saints teaching and life. For St. Bernard it is a homily on Love.
I first glimpse is may seem simplistic for the moment we are living. It may in fact seem naive. And yet, as I read it, it became clear that is the one and only answer to this moment in history. And we Christians have forgotten how to love.
All you have to do is glance at Facebook. In an instant, it is clear how many people who call themselves Christians have forgotten the most basic truth of the Christian faith. They post and share hateful half-truths about people they don’t like. We are willing to believe any bad thing said about people we don’t like, no matter how absurd.
If we are going to survive this moment in our history, we who call ourselves Christians are going to have to be the ones who lead.
St. Bernard reminds us that love is not and emotion. Love is God. God is Love itself. God pours out Himself and loves us that we might in turn love him back. Our love is and always will be less, because we are less. We are the creatures; God is the Creator. But we can and must give ourselves totally that Love which is God.
Only by allowing ourselves to be filled with the infinite, perfect love of God, can we then in turn love other people.
But I tell you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you Mt. 5:44
We forget that we are Church, ekklesia - called apart. And what sets us apart from the rest of the world is precisely this love of those on the other side.
Today, may the love of God fill us, that we may in turn show love, even to those people with whom we most disagree.
