Love that comforts and strengthens
Recognizing the power and presence of God, Love itself, brings out compassion and strength, even in the face of tragedy.
I have family in Lewiston, Maine, where a multiple-location shooting rampage took place this week. People have been reaching out to me individually during the active shooter situation to show they care, and that simple act of love is a palpable comfort. My own heart reaches out with a profound desire to comfort and care for all those who have been affected.
Beyond the initial shock, I’ve felt that even at times like these there is something deeper and even more powerful reaching out, impelling resilience and strength. These qualities stem from a source bigger than us all: God, good. Not an evil god or one that causes or knows suffering, but the God that is Love.
This infinite, divine Love that is God created us in His own image, as the Bible explains. This image is entirely spiritual, designed to express what St. Paul describes as “charity.” That’s the kind of pure, selfless, God-impelled love that is needed today. As Paul says, “Charity never faileth” (I Corinthians 13:8).
For me this idea of charity connects to the Lord’s Prayer, which Christ Jesus gave to his disciples – and to all – to pray (see Matthew 6:9-13). It’s a prayer that Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, says “covers all human needs” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 16).
When I get to the line “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” I realize that for years I have been praying with this line in a personal way – “lead [me] not into temptation ... deliver [me] from evil.” I was thinking more of “me” than “us.” And who is this “us”? It includes everyone. The Lord’s Prayer challenges everyone to include all humanity “in one affection” (see Mary Baker Eddy, “No and Yes,” p. 39).
Today, as I pray for those in Lewiston and beyond, I’m taking the Lord’s Prayer as a call to reach higher. It is a prayer for all of us. It helps me see that divine Love is present to comfort those affected by fear and grief and deliver even those misled into the temptation of evil, because those things have no place in infinite Love.
Recognizing our single source lifts our hearts and minds with the spiritual qualities we need to rise above atrocity. That’s the type of love or charity that’s needed for today.
In view of our deep need for unity, for care, for loving one another, let’s go forward “with a charity broad enough to cover the whole world’s evil” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 224).