I’m sorry if you clicked through because you wanted my reaction on yesterday’s ruling.1 I’m not here to talk about the news. Or rather, I am.
Last week, a terrorist walked into a church and continued a long line of crimes against Black Americans. This week, emboldened arsonists continued the attack on Black churches while almost a thousand people died from the heatwave in Pakistan. Yesterday, ISIS seems to have carried out coordinated attacks in 3 countries.
#Lovewins
It’s been all over social media, being shouted from the rooftops by people radiant with joy for their futures and wild with excitement for their friends and just proud of their country. “Love wins!” they shout, as they dance and cheer and celebrate love.
And we whose reaction is less celebratory nod and smile, perhaps in spite of ourselves. There is much we may disagree on, but in this we can rejoice together: Love wins.
It has nothing to do with the news today. Or rather, it does, but it’s old News.
Love won two thousand years ago when he became flesh to cry out his Love for us. Each time he consoled adulteresses or welcomed Pharisees, Love won. He healed and corrected and challenged and gave life because Love wins.
Love won that black day when he took our sin upon him and destroyed our death. He shattered the hold sin had over us, ransoming our souls and winning us for the Father who is Love.
Love won when he broke the bonds of death and emerged victorious from the grave. He won when he came back for us, reminding us that not our denial or our doubt or our outright betrayal of him could stop his Love.
Love wins every time we see a person and not a label. Love wins when we refuse to define people by their sin or their closed-mindedness or their bank statement or their dress size or their age or their ability. Love wins when we too console adulteresses and welcome Pharisees. In each moment of reconciliation, of generosity, of compassion, of witness to the truth, of mercy, Love wins.
Despite evil and hatred and war and disease, Love wins. Because not even death can end his merciful Love. In the face of a world gone crazy with rage, we stand before the void and cry out this truth: Love wins. Because Satan has been defeated and the victory is ours. Because the victory of Love is not a victory of feelings but the promise that Love will never leave us or forsake us, that in spite of our feelings Love has triumphed and will fight for us until our last moment and perhaps beyond.
Love won last week in Charleston when victims stood up and forgave the one who murdered their loved ones. In a moment of mercy that will become a lifetime of trying again to forgive, they showed us just what it means when we say that Love wins: it means that Love is always more powerful than hatred, even when it seems hatred is triumphant. Evil has forgotten about the eternal epilogue.
And Love will win on the last day, when he drags every sorry soul he can get his pierced hands on into the kingdom. Despite our pettiness and our ugliness, despite our constant rejection of his Love and our desperation for cheap imitations of it, he will win.
Perhaps it’s more a cry of hope than a jeer of triumph, this declaration that Love wins. It’s the promise that the gates of hell will not prevail, not that they won’t seem to. It’s a challenge to us never to speak (or tweet) from bitterness or judgment or despair but to let God be God and trust in a love that makes us new.
Whether you found yesterday glorious or discouraging,2 in the end Love wins. Our task is to live for that Love. Whatever side you’re on, drop your weapons. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. You want Love to win? Live like it.
- But let’s be real. If you agree with me, you already know everything I’m going to say. And if you disagree, today’s not the day you’re going to listen. [↩]
- And either way, I love you. But forget me–Jesus loves you like crazy! [↩]
Would you have rejoiced with those who rejoiced over the legalization of abortion? It is right to mourn evil.
I completely agree.
Do you actually think these are parallel rulings? One decriminalized murder, the other puts a faulty label on a relationship that already exists. Nobody has been given permission to do anything they weren’t doing before. And millions of people aren’t going to die as a result of it. Forgive me if I’m drawing your analogy out too far–I know analogies limp–but I don’t find the rulings analogous.
Of course we lament the decision. I would think that would be obvious. But this is more than just a blow against marriage. The people who are celebrating have spent their entire lives being told they were worthless. In yesterday’s celebrations, children of God were told (in a way that they were able to hear) that they mattered. I don’t have to approve of their behavior to find some joy in their feeling loved. And I think a Christian perspective is to see not only the sin but the pain behind it and to love those who are hurting.
Also, as I said, this wasn’t really a post on the decision. It was really a post on love. When everybody already knows your position on an issue, you don’t generally have to explain it. You have to show them how you can love them while still holding that position.
Thanks for reading!
I just want to thank you so much for this post and especially for this comment. They both gave me so much consolation because many of the posts regarding this topic are either ultra-conservative (and often losing the focus on human dignity and worth) or ultra-liberal. My perspective on the matter aligned with neither. The way I see it is God doesn’t aide us in overcoming sin by berating us; His unconditional and divine Love nourishes our souls and encourages us to seek Him. So, we must do the same in supporting our brothers and sisters in pursuing salvation.
Of course we are supposed to love everyone despite their faults and sins. That’s a core component of Christianity. I really do like this article, it’s the timing of it that disturbs me.
The sacrament of marriage is being mocked, minimized, and twisted. As Catholics we NEED to stand up for what is true and good and not simply try to get along with everyone, hold hands and sing campfire songs.
The legalization of gay marriage not only is a mockery of God’s sacrament, but it will also have detrimental effects on social security in this country, create an even stronger division between people of differing ideologies, and will terribly impact the rights of the Church in America.
Priests will be forced to perform gay marriages or will not be allowed to practice as priests at all, hence millions of Catholics will have to go underground or leave America.
So yes, impending persecutions of Catholicism in America is as serious as abortion. Our faith, our Church and our souls are slowly being murdered, just like the innocents who are killed via abortions.
Death of the soul is WORSE than death of the body. So this ruling, which is bound to lead many to hell, will be much worse than Roe v. Wade.
Thank you for speaking truth when it goes against the narrative of the day. One can love sinners as we are all sinners, but hate the sin, and what we are seeing is continued celebration of sinful behavior. It’s so sad.
Thank you Ryan. I just believe Catholics need to fight for good and not just sweep sin under the rug and smile on.
I love and respect every human on the face of this earth. But I don’t love sin and I won’t sit quietly and watch it overtake my country.
As a Catholic and a law professor, I can guarantee you this decision will not require any priest or minister to marry gay or lesbian couples. No persecution of Catholics can or will be based upon this decision. It only mandates that states not prohibit the secular marital relationship to homosexual couples. It does not and cannot require any church to recognize these marriages as valid in the eyes of the church, nor require clergy to perform a rite of their faith to consecrate the union.
The law is so vague and changeable, you really can’t guarantee such a statement to be true. Probability-wise and taking into account our country’s continual leftist-leaning these past 60 years, religious freedoms will be restricted even more, including those of Catholic priests.
I hope you are right, but anything can happen. I’m not optimistic regarding the subject.
Your second paragraph in this comment nails it. I do agree that it opens the door to more abuses against the institution of marriage and the family. But heterosexual people have been making a mockery of it for years, too.
I have a gay friend from HS, who has been in a committed relationship for several years. He is more concerned about the “rights that come along with the paper” and I can appreciate that. The right to be recognized as “next of kin” or be covered on the health insurance of the other. That’s just human dignity.
But they are parallel rulings… First, it is unconstitutional! Secondly, what about the children of these unions? A homosexual union cannot be “consummated,” in other words, they cannot “procreate.” The sexual acts by partners of the same sex cannot result in the creation of life! It is self fulfilling! In many cases, children are being created by artificial means. In the words of Pope Francis, “Gay marriage discriminates against children, in advance, depriving them of their human development, given by a mother and a father and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts and the very survival of the human family, which he defined as a mother, father and their children.” Look, I don’t impune the love between two persons, God is love! But to redefine marriage to meet social and political demands is contributing to a more and more relativistic society. As Christians we are all called to respond with charity and love but at the same time must uphold sound biblical and traditional teaching on the sacredness of a marriage between one man and one woman. We must continue to pray!
This is exactly what I thought yesterday! Great post.
Well written, totally agree.
Art recently posted…Love Should be the Foundation of Christianity
Well said <
I rejoice in God’s unending love but mourn and reject the evils of the world.
Are not Christians supposed to strive for and fight for God’s love and goodness to reign not only in Heaven, but here on earth too? As a Catholic, it’s important to rejoice and have faith in God’s love but ALSO to stand by what is right.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.”
Matthew 5:6
completely agree!!!
Said with such grace…..bless you and bless us all ~ love wins! Love one another as He loves us ❤️
My name is John. I am a the Head of Social Sciences and an RE teacher at a Catholic school for girls in Auckland, New Zealand. Thank you Meg for writing this wonderful reflection. It touched my heart. I agree with Jordan. Your insight and perspective is one I share. God bless you.
beautifully written. thanks for sharing.
This is truly one of the most beautiful things I have read in a long time. Thank you for writing it, it touched my heart deeply.
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Loving everyone and forgiving them of there evils is one thing but letting them into your life is another. There are so many people who are self centered. I have a very small amount of people who I trust. I wish I could feel differently. Is there another way?
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