One of my lenten books this year has been ‘Faith under Fire’ by Andrew White, the vicar of Baghdad. It is a powerful, moving work which speaks of unbelievable courage, and a profound faith in God, even in the darkest times, with persecution and violence being a daily reality. One passage in particular stuck out at me as I read it, and I re-read it several times afterwards to let the full impact of the words hit me:
“We often say that our love has to be as radical and as extreme as the hatred that surrounds us.”
The results of these actions have been obvious and positive. If that’s what love can do in a warzone, what good could it maybe do in our own, less extreme, but equally complicated and confused society?
In conflict, one often repeated phrase is ‘fight fire with fire’. To me, that has always struck me as a bit stupid. You don’t extinguish a blaze with the aid of a flame-thrower. You do however fight fire with water. The same is surely true of violence?
What love is more radical or extreme than that of Christ? His example is to lay down His life, not only for His friends, but for His enemies too. His sacrifice in the name of love is limitless and breathtaking. For a Catholic, it is re-enacted continually in the Eucharist, but that some love is present also in every other aspect of our lives- at prayer, at work, at play, with others and on our own.
In the past few weeks, I have been sadly aware of a great deal of hate and ignorance, some of it quite extreme, on both sides of the debate on marriage, but also on some of the wider sociological debates surrounding religion, which seem to have sprung up as a result of the marriage debate. People who should know better on both sides have said hurtful and painful things. It is saddening to see such destructive behaviour in anyone, but in people who profess to follow the Gospel path, it is particularly so.
The angry rhetoric of some Christians certainly seems borne out of legitimate concerns about our marginalisation. It certainly feels that the views of more traditional Christians of all denominations (and indeed all people of faith), are increasingly at odds with those of our secular neighbours. However, the temptation to gravitate towards the rhetoric of exclusivity, rancour and even hate needs to be resisted at all costs, no matter how hard it may seem… On one side, secular society may see an antiquated restrictive organisation (or group of organisations), attempting to impose apparently medieval systems on the majority. On the other, religion can sometimes feel marginalised, mocked and devalued when it brings the kind of spiritual nourishment which our society so deeply needs. The concerns on both sides of the debate seem legitimate. It is indeed wrong for a religious minority to impose their ethical code on those who do not subscribe to it, but society cannot continue to be so dismissive of religion either. Religion is here to stay. So is secularism. We can all either work together, be friends and make the world a better place, or continue in our current polarised fashion. I know what I’d like to see.
I shall be thinking more about this in the next few weeks, especially as Holy Week arrives. It certainly seems however, that for those who wish to further the cause of religion, there needs to be a move from one extreme to another. Instead of indiscriminate hate, what about indiscriminate love? So this is my suggestion today to all those who wish to demonstrate the relevance of religion in western culture, turning the rhetoric of the extremist on its head-
love indiscriminately, love without remorse, love without thought to the personal cost to you, rock society to its core with acts of love that cannot be ignored- acts of love that grab media attention- let everyone see the incredible power of love and let them stand awestruck and dumbfounded before it!
So this is my call to extreme, militant love; especially to Christians, but indeed to people of all faiths and none- let’s hit society with the true arsenal of those who want to establish the Kingdom of God on earth; kindness, generosity, tolerance, open-mindedness, meekness, prayer, and most importantly; love. Society won’t know what has hit it…
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