Love is the Key to Healing

This country is currently the most divided I’ve ever seen it in my entire lifetime. There are racial issues, cultural issues and innocents being brutally murdered every day. Our nation is falling apart because we are an egocentric set of people. We center everything we think, do and say around excessive self-love and immediate gratification. We have forgotten what it means and what it looks like to truly love others with our hearts, without any self-interest or self-gain, but freely and willingly.

National tragedies are always incredibly sad and heartbreaking. What’s ironic though, is that they usually bring out the best in people. After 9/11, people made a bee-line to church, began praying more, were authentically patriotic and were genuinely loving towards one another. Why should we have to wait for these atrocities to happen in order to love authentically with empathetic hearts?

Culture is falling apart before our eyes. It’s incredibly sad that the most important thing we learned growing up has been thrown out the window- that we should treat others as we want to be treated. Now more than ever, families, marriages and relationships are broken. People show no respect for the dignity of all human life. Whether it be through senseless killing (like what just happened in Dallas and Baton Rouge) or the every day evil of abortion. We have stopped following Jesus’ example of true and perfect (HOLY) love. For some reason, we are afraid to carry our crosses and afraid of dealing with the trails of every day life. So what do we do? We hide. We hide from our crosses, responsibilities and trials -- behind screens. We hide from our friends, families, parents, spouses, our churches and most importantly, we hide from God … or we try to anyway. We also blame others for our own faults and failures, and we have forgotten how to own up to our mistakes courageously and with humility. We also continue to re-open and brood over old wounds, ignoring the beautiful and necessary act of forgiveness.

When Jesus carried His cross, He did it with LOVE. He didn’t complain or hide from His obligations. EVERYTHING Jesus did was out of love. Why is it so hard for us to do the same? Jesus gave us a commandment to, “love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). This should be what we eat, sleep and breathe.

Loving God first and foremost and loving our neighbor as thyself is the key to healing our nation. Matthew 22: 34-40 states, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments the whole law(the Ten Commandments) is based, and the prophets as well.” What else needs to be said?

Identifying self-love and replacing it with holy love is a process. However, with God’s Grace and the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, it can be done. We CAN overcome the seemingly impossible task of living a good Christian life, as we are all made in the image and likeness of God, and He NEVER gives us more than we can handle (Genesis 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 10:12).

Before the country can become collectively more loving and caring towards others, individual hearts need to be moved away from egocentricity and towards genuine (holy) love. When identifying self-love, we should ask ourselves the following:

Am I more concerned about myself than others whom I can impact? Are my thoughts, words and actions centered around myself and how I can make my existence better through pleasures of the world? Do I have a problem accepting my own mistakes or that of others (pridefulness)?

Exhibiting genuine love means being motivated by the love of God, love of your neighbor, and acting on that in thought, word and deed. It means loving and forgiving others, as well as not being afraid of accepting our mistakes. Dealing with hardships is never easy, but we must lovingly embrace our struggles and offer them to the one who has endured all: Jesus.

Only then will we begin to see peace in our families, communities and the world. It’s up to us to take the first step.