“To love, my brothers and sisters, does not mean we have to agree.
But maybe agreeing to love is the greatest agreement.
And the only one that ultimately matters,
because it makes a future possible.”
The Most Rev. Michael Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church
This Holy Week of 2022 is laden with world issues and concerns that feel so heavy. Not only are we still in the grip of a pandemic, but on the nightly news we are watching more shootings, tragedies, and the horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Fear and anxiety abound–enough to overwhelm the hopeful Easter message of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead.
Regardless of our faith tradition, I believe we must resist these fears and anxieties with every fiber of our being. They are not of God and not part of His plan. From a purely secular perspective, they do nothing helpful and have the potential for doing great harm to our physical and mental health. Let’s all take a collective deep breath and choose an alternative: Love.
Love for each other…
Love for ourselves…
Love for our country…
Love for our world…
And yes, love for our enemies.
It’s not easy.
I’m tempted to be like the Old Testament psalmists in wishing sores and pestilence and all manner of bad things to rain down on Putin and his henchmen. It is alarmingly satisfying to slip from disagreeing with those who hold different political ideas to belittling them as human beings. Too often, I lose patience with those people in my life who are like a piece of gravel in my shoe. Even worse, I too often lose patience with loved ones.
Love calls on us to go higher, dig deeper, and call on every spiritual resource at our disposal to move towards the light.
This Easter Sunday, John and I will worship at The Church of the Holy Faith, the oldest Episcopal church in New Mexico. As I walk into that sacred space, I’ll still carry a load of worries, fears, and anxieties. But with God’s help, I am going to lay them down at His feet and ask that He replace them with a purer heart, a cleaner mind, and a sweeter spirit.
May we all embrace Bishop Curry’s call to agree to love, no matter what. This is the Heartspoken way.
Happy Easter!
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Amen, Elizabeth! I couldn’t agree more. This is what I’ve been feeling so strongly as I’ve been with my family in Texas this past week. If only we could make space for each other’s experiences of life and faith and spirituality… if only.
Thank you so much for this confirmation, Katherine! And for taking the time to read and comment. Your sharing of your experience in Texas was certainly part of the inspiration for this post. I know many of my readers will enjoy it too: https://katherinerobertsonpilling.medium.com/faith-and-the-power-of-letting-go-the-wheel-of-creativity-c59b72f2b0e5