"Will you not stand with me? Will you not choose the weapon of love and fight with me? Will you not mark the world with me one faith action at a time?" What if Jesus uttered these questions directly to our individual persons, how would we respond? We would all like to say that we would respond with an emphatic yes to each question but is that truly the case? God asks us this question every single day, all we need to do is look at the crucifix and we will hear these questions shout from the heart...
"Will you stand with me?" How do we stand with the Lord? This does not mean that we need to walk around on our soap box preaching to the crowds, nor does it mean that we need to act the martyr. Standing with Christ means taking time to be, be with the Lord in the moment, in a sunset, in a cool breeze, in an illness, in a death, in a birth; stand with Christ. Go out and stand for ten hours and you are fatigued; to stand with Christ we need to build our endurance via prayer. Contemplative moments, moments where the world disappears and Christ is center, these moments deep our spiritual connection to the Father. In these moments, our focus is on God, not our world, not our wants but our God and His love. Quick utterances of 'I love you' or 'Thank you, God' will become part of our daily verbiage as we deepen our understanding of God in this world as we attempt to stand with Him each moment. Gifted with fortitude, gifted with reverence we stand with Christ prepared to act as His humble servant and endure the bitterness of this stand. "Will you stand with Me?"
"Will you not choose the weapon of love and fight with me?" There is a fine line between love and hate but there is no line, nothing comes close to unconditional love; nothing. Choosing to love unconditionally means accepting the faults of others as well as accepting faults of self; it means holding loving no matter the consequence or situation. When God says He loves us, He puts no conditions upon this love, we need to love without condition, without stipulations. Love with conditions gives is the love which draws a line in the sand between love and hate. We must learn to love humbly; love with the heart, not the mind; love with genuine concern not incumbent necessity for this love is God's love, this love can be used to fight the cruelty, the inhumane actions of this world. Unconditional love, it heals, it makes people whole, it settles people into a home, a home with Christ. Unconditional love is a weapon to be use to end hatred, end disbelief, end violence; the question is are we prepared to use such a weapon? Only when we have stood with Christ, only when we have gained endurance via our gifts of fortitude and piety, only then will we understand our training on the use of such a powerful weapon began the moment of our conception. The moment we were conceived we were loved for we were love and we are love. God's words from the heart, words expressed by others, written Word, life stories of Christ, the crucifix, these are all expressions of love, love we must embody, to love we must commit for this our training, our modeling of unconditional love. Once we have taken the time to witness to, act with and commit to such limitless, such conditionless love, then we may pick up our weapon of love and fight with Christ that all may know His love, all may reap the glory of His love, all may settle into His arms and rest in His peace, His joy, His love. This is God's hope, we are the means to bring this hope...love without condition, love with the whole heart, the whole soul, love with the passion and compassion of a Christ. "Will you not choose the weapon of love and fight with me?"
"Will you not mark the world with me one faith action at a time?" The world is marked by hatred, violence, vengeance and fear, now is the time to remark the world with love, hope, peace, holiness, gratitude, compassion and empathy. Now is the time o take the words and put them into action, make faith an action, make faith real in the eyes of those who disbelieve. Giving to those who are without, listening to those whose mind torments, embracing the pain of which so many are afflicted, this is our calling, this our purpose, this our chance to act with faith. Deeply we are touched by God, deeply we know His existence and with eyes of understanding, we see Christ alive in creation, alive actions, alive in the connections of the heart. The words of Christ or imprinted upon our heart, we will love our neighbor as ourselves; this love will have no limits, no stipulations will be placed upon this love. Our hearts will speak to those who have lost hope and our arms will wrap the apathetic in love. The hungry, the stick, the poor, the tired will find rest, find nourishment at our table, in our home. Together, with Christ, we will carry the downtrodden and excite the spiritless; we will carry their burdens and free them from their heavy loads that they may rejoice in true, genuine, unconditional love as they see the face of God in each and every of our actions. Let us mark this world, let faith be our calling card and love be the mark we leave with each person we meet. "Will you not mark the world with me one faith action at a time?"
Three questions we have been asked, three question to which we must respond. How will we respond?
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