2 December 2019
I was recently
asked to love my worst enemy; hard to discover who that might be. Love is one
of the hardest terms to define and there’s a dearth of defined words out there.
Arguments spin around rebutting meanings unintended, unexpressed.
Cross-communication.
What do we mean by
love? Am I to love as mother and child love: complete dependency, attachment,
protection, tenderness? Wouldn’t it be curious to love as lovers do: intense
desire, possession, attraction, singularity? What about family love:
exclusiveness, blood ties, responsibility, bonding? Or love of country? Patriotic love to die for, or heart-rending
love of dispossession? Self-abandoning love of God? The love of money, of
course, is the root of evil, often the branches, too.
If the love of
friends, as the ancients believed, will always seek the good for a friend, is
this close enough to love of enemies who by definition always seek harm for an
enemy? Now who is out there seeking harm for me? Don’t answer that. Wouldn’t it
be safer to seek the good for everyone? Not specific enough? Wishing honour,
dignity, well-being and divine favour to my dearest enemy? Christ approaches.
Not for nothing is he called the Prince of Peace.
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