A psychology professor who had no children would frequently reprove his neighbor for scolding her child: “You should love your child, not punish him.” One hot summer day the professor repaired his concrete driveway spending many hours of hard work on it. When finished he turned back on his accomplishment and out of the corner of his eye saw the mischievous boy putting his foot into the fresh cement. He grabbed the boy and was about to spank him when his neighbor leaned from her window and yelled: “Remember professor, you must love the child!” The professor yelled back: “I do love him – in the abstract – I don’t love him in the concrete!”
Loving people in the concrete isn’t necessarily easy but it is doable. Jesus does it in this Sunday’s Gospel with Judas, the man who betrays him. He then encourages loving people in the concrete for all disciples: “This is how all will know you for my disciples; your love for one another.” Early disciples were true to Jesus’ concrete love. From Aristeides: Christians “do good to their enemies…when they see a stranger, they take him into their homes.” From Justin Martyr: “we bring what we have into a common stock … we who once hated and destroyed one another … now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with others.” The name given to Justin indicates the risk concrete love was in those early days of persecution. Today, depending upon our circumstances, love in the concrete may still be a risk. It is the risk of concrete love Mathew Ayairga a non-Christian took when he was captured by ISIS in Libya with 20 Coptic Christians. When breathing their last each one loved and forgave their captors who beheaded them. When the terrorists asked him of his faith, he is reported to have said, “Their God is my God,” and he too was beheaded. It is the risk of concrete love taken daily by Muslim student Banen Al-Sheemary who is doing her best to love and forgive the U.S. soldiers who invaded, occupy, and continue to terrorize her homeland of Iraq. It is the less consequential but still genuine risk of concrete love each of us takes when we make eye contact with a person begging for money, when we listen to a person complain, when we practice kindness with persons who are rude or downright mean to us.
People may try to talk us out of being loving in the concrete; telling us we are foolish or enabling, But love in the abstract, love in theory, is not love. Love is only love when it is in the concrete; in the concrete between family and friends, between neighbors and nations. Love in the concrete affirms the depth of our character. It increases the likelihood we will be happy in the life we share with our many brothers and sisters. Love in the concrete changes lives directly and has a ripple effect on society. It leads to benefits in the lives of brothers and sisters we haven not yet met and, probably never will meet. For surely, just as much as we share our home with spouses, children, and friends, so too we share our home – this earth – with unmet brothers and sisters. The concrete love we share in each home matters.
Prayer: Spirit of Love, in you we make all things new.
Question: With whom do I need to risk concrete love?
April 24, 2016 Gospel John 13:31-35 Fifth Sunday of Easter