How do we decide to love people?

 One of the realities in life is how to respond to people who dislike or hate us. We can often spend much of our energy trying to discover what it is that we have done that causes such enmity between us and them. I think that this may be wasted energy because the reasons may be more complex than we imagine. It may be that they remind us of someone who has hurt us or they may have actually caused us harm. They may hold viewpoints significantly different from our own or it may be as simple that they barrack for a different team than our own. However, it is often this ability to divide one against another which can influence how we react and how we will respond differently to the people we like and those we cannot stand.

Yet the Gospel speaks of loving our neighbour not because we agree with them but because they are created in the image and likeness of God. Thus we seek to love the person as God loves them. This can seem paradoxical but it is essentially at the heart of God's creative plan. We even see this in the Jewish law which says an eye for an eye or tooth for a tooth. This is not as it seems a call for vengeance but rather that we are not called to allow evil intentions to consume us in response to the harmful actions of another. Jesus takes this further to ensure that we do not allow our actions simply to react to the actions of another. We are called to consider not just our own good but the good of another. This is so counterintuitive that we often find a way of conditionally loving another rather than the agape love of God. This is why we ponder the crucifix so often as we seek to make sense of the radical love of God which is prepared to suffer and die for us so that we can find new life.

So this is what lies at the heart of the matter. It is not about finding the right argument or position that will convince another that we are right and they are wrong. Rather it is witnessing this radical love of God by giving the whole of ourselves to even the ungrateful and the unkind. This is indeed challenging but it lies at the heart of our consideration that each person is created as a temple of God and should be considered sacred. Thus when we work with others, especially those who oppose us we need to find ways that allow us to give thanks for the work of God within them. It calls us to be people who pray, reflect, and act in a way that is opening to the grace of God who bids us to the same radical love that guided Jesus to surrender everything for the love of us. God did not wait for us to become good but rather bid us to encounter the depth of this love even in situations where we are challenged in our relationships with others. Jesus makes this the principle and foundation of his life when he states we must love our neighbour as ourselves.