Per Christum Catholic Blog

Aimee reflects on love, and specifically loving those who are different. Aimee writes:

The other day I wrote a post on detachment, in which I repeated St. Augustine’s teaching on how to love: love God for His own sake, and love others for the sake of God, that they may know and love Him, too.

I’ve benefited so much in my own life from the Church’s teaching on love, self-sacrificing love that takes you so far beyond yourself or your own personal loves. And now I’m experiencing it in a new way: through, of all things, Facebook.

That’s right, Facebook. I decided to join it just recently, so I could network with other Catholics. But soon after I joined I started hearing from friends who had found me there. And then I started hearing from some old friends from my old Evangelical church.

And then, just a few days ago, I started hearing from really old friends, from my pre-Christian days, friends I’ve been out of touch with for years, even some I’d fallen out of touch with over my conversion to Catholicism.

Has it ever brought back memories. And we are all in different places in life, all over the map spiritually, politically, personally. And yet I am so happy to be reunited with them, to be hearing stories of their lives, their children, their parents, and whatever happens to be going on with them in the moment.

And it’s caused me to reflect: why do we love others? When I was younger, to be honest, I tended to love those most who were most like me. When I was young and a new age liberal type, I thought I was very tolerant, very open-minded. But the truth is, I was actually very closed to a lot of different people. When I look back, I see that my circle of friends was actually pretty narrow, comprised mostly of people just like me in belief and outlook.

After I became a Christian, in the Evangelical world, I began to socialize and befriend people that in my former life I never would have gone near, never would have been interested in befriending, probably would have looked down on, and certainly would have assumed had nothing in common with me. And yet, as a Christian, I came to so love and appreciate those very same kinds of people I used to dislike and avoid.

As a Catholic, I’ve come to know and love an even greater variety of kinds of people, because there are so many different kinds of people in the Catholic world. And I don’t agree with all of them on everything, nor they with me. But I love and appreciate them for who they are.

Now, coming full circle, being reunited with some of my oldest friends from my pre-Christian days, I realize: I have learned to love people, not for what they believe or how similar they are to me, but just for themselves, who they are, regardless of what they believe, or what they have to offer me. I have been disciplined in how to love, without even knowing it – and so been brought a step closer to learning to love as God loves, wholly and selflessly, for other’s sake, not for mine – in the end, so that others may know and love God, too. And this is something for which I am very grateful, along with all the other things in my life I have to be grateful for.

It is interesting that Aimee brings up Facebook, because I have noticed exactly what she speaks of. Since I got on facebook earlier this year (I think that is when I joined),  I have reconnected with a variety of friends, and they are all over the place in terms of their views on religion, politics, and life in general. Some are fans of Pat Buchanan (along with me), while others were cheering when Obama was elected. Some are involved in youth ministry at local non-denominational churches, while others are at best mildly theistic. Some are urban, and one is an out-and-out redneck (one of his pictures he is holding a Pabst blue Ribbon).

I honestly don’t regularly view my facebook friends (or any of my friends) as potential converts, on which I am ready to pounce at any time. This is not to say I am not concerned with evangelization of others. I just believe that evangelization is an organic process, and not an artificial continued preparation to “pounce” on non-believers. What Aimee mentions is agape love, i.e. selfless and sacrificial love. This is not love that refuses to have contact with “sinners” and “non-believers,” but rather a love that reaches out to them, loves them, without trying to badger or bludgeon them into the kingdom of God.

Thanks to Catholic Report for pointing out this fine article.