BY JUN VELASCO
WE WERE searching for a timely message for our readers, taking into account the political turbulence that’s making nations anxious if not fearful of a war without borders.
As we pondered President Duterte’s unwavering faith in China’s assurances of support, our thoughts suddenly riveted to the celebrated “wedding of the year” of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle which, by dint of Divine intervention, received an awesome “homily” from a brilliant church authority, Bishop Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, imploring Christians to put love at the center of their spiritual and political lives.
Sent by bosom friend Ernesto Siapno, his report says, “Until that moment, the ceremony had been quite staid, stuffy even, with only the mention of “sexual union” to keep us on our toes.”
He said: “We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love.”
“And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world.”
THE TEXT OF THE SERMON
And now in the name of our loving liberating and life giving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.
From the Song of Solomon in the Bible: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is as strong as death, passion as fierce as the grave, its flashes of flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it out
The late Dr. Martin Luther King once said, and I quote: “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love, and when we do that we will make of this old world a new world. For love is the only way.”
There’s power in love. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t even over sentimentalize it. There’s power, power in love. If you don’t believe me, think about a time when you first fell in love. The whole world seemed to center around you and your beloved. There’s power, power in love.
Not just in its romantic forms but any form, any shape of love. There’s a certain sense in which when you are loved and you know it, when someone cares for you and you know it, when you love and you show it, it actually feels right. There’s something right about it.
And there’s a reason for it. The reason has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love. And our lives were meant and are meant to be lived in that love. That’s why we are here. Ultimately the source of love is God himself, the source of all of our lives. There’s an old medieval poem that says, “Where true love is found, God himself is there.”
The New Testament says it this way, “Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God and those who love are born of God and know God, those who do not love do not know God.”
Why? For God is love. There’s power in love. There’s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live. Set me as a seal on your heart. A seal on your arm. For love it’s strong as death.
But love is not only about a young couple. Now the power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we are all here. Two young people fell in love and we all showed up. But it’s not just for and about a young couple who we rejoice with.
It’s more than that. Jesus of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence of the teachings of Moses. He went back and reached back into the Hebrew scriptures, to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said “You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.”
This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And then in Matthew’s version, he added, on these two, Love of God and Love of Neighbor, hang all the laws, all the prophets, everything that Moses wrote, everything in the holy prophets, everything in the scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world. Love God, love your neighbors, and while you’re at it, love yourself.
Now someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of human history, a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world. A movement mandating people to live that love. And in so doing, to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself. (To be continued) (juanitomvelasco@yahoo.com/PN)
