Loving the "Loveless"

There is an age old saying, “Assuming makes an ass out of you and me.”

It’s so true it hurts. Yet here we are, in a society that is based entirely off of assumptions. These assumptions are based on stereotypical depictions of the labels we force people to identify themselves with each and every day. We assume that gender, race, and socioeconomic status defines the way someone lives their life, and we don’t stop ourselves from doing so.

Yes, labels are informative, but they disassemble the person before us, rendering them powerless.

Let’s use an analogy to look at the issue we have caused ourselves by allowing labels to define a person’s life: a car.

Each part of a car is important. Some folks might think that the best way to understand the way a car works is to take the engine apart, piece by piece, until each piece is described in great detail. However, now that the engine is sitting in a disassembled heap on the garage floor, the car is unable to drive.

We make it impossible for people to move forward when we allow ourselves to detail their labels.

I have written about this idea before, but one of these labels has become more and more relevant over the course of the past year.

Faith.

I cannot describe how many times I have heard someone say, “Oh you’re Catholic so you…” fill in the blank. There are so many different assumptions made about my life, my political affiliations, and my ability to truly love other people.

But it’s not just Catholicism that is treated this way. Every single faith tradition, or lack thereof, is met with numerous assumptions, many of which disassemble the person before us. We make faith or lack of faith a piece of a person, and we base their belief system solely off of what the world describes their beliefs as.

Thus terms like “cultural Catholicism” come out, and we blindly accept the implications of making faith just another piece of the culture.

Faith is not a culture.

Faith is personal.

Because I am Catholic, I am going to speak from the Catholic perspective. I know that we are not the only faith tradition that experiences “cultural” faith, but I cannot accurately describe the lives of those who come from different spiritual backgrounds.

With each Mass, I see more and more glazed over expressions in the Eucharistic prayers. It wasn’t until I lived with a liturgical scholar that I realized that the prayers changed with the seasons more than I knew. Even with my active prayer life, I still missed some of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard. Here’s an example.

“It is truly right and just that we should give you thanks and praise, O God, almighty Father, for all you do in this world, through our Lord Jesus Christ. For though the human race is divided by dissension and discord, yet we know that by testing us you change our hearts to prepare them for reconciliation. Even more, by your Spirit you move human hearts that enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries may join hands, and peoples seek to meet together. By the working of your power it comes about, O Lord, that hatred is overcome by love, revenge gives way to forgiveness, and discord is changed to mutual respect.” ~Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II

2000 years of rich history, and yet we chalk Catholicism up to a piece of our culture.

Faith becomes a routine thing we do, and it starts to lose value. So much in fact that the cultures that claim a particular faith tradition go against their beliefs completely.

On a more grand scale, Ireland claims cultural Catholicism, meaning that the Faith informs the culture. Yet this past week they voted for the legalization of abortion, which is in direct contradiction to the Faith. However, this is not the point of this post, so I will simply state this as an example of how a cultural definition of faith as opposed to a personal definition of faith is detrimental not only to the person, but to society as a whole.

Faith is not a culture.

Faith is personal.

Most of us do not want to take ownership of our faith. It’s not because we don’t think about the concept of believing in something. Every human soul encounters the concept of God, and each soul has the opportunity to either accept Him or deny Him. That’s free will.

However, we choose to make belief something we do as opposed to something we are.

Why?

Because we can get hurt.

You may have heard the phrase Dear Reader, “your faith is about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” There is no denying that Jesus of Nazareth was a real person who had a real impact on the world. I’ve read a few books, such as The Case for Christ, which also make a strong case for His resurrection. However, the Paschal Mystery wherein Jesus Christ came to Earth to die for our sins is still a matter of faith.

However, to make an act of faith on the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world means that you have to accept arguably the most popular Bible verse.

“For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” ~John 3:16

God so loved the world.

In order to profess this faith, you have to believe that someone loves you. Not just anyone, but the God of the Universe, the Creator, an intangible being that we cannot see in this life. As a romantic, I know that it is difficult to open your heart up to someone. Yet when it comes to Christianity, I have to believe in a person I cannot see. I have to believe that He loves me specifically.

Love is not trivial.

Love is personal.

To love someone is to know them. You cannot truly know someone just by listening to stories about them. How many times have you met someone your friends have described and discovered that there is infinitely more to them than what you heard before? So too it is with Christ. Just like the aforementioned mutual friend, you actually have to spend time with Jesus in order to actually understand who He is, and at the same time, understand His love for you.

You grow in love for others by being with them and sharing unique experiences with them.

No relationship is the same.

So if faith is personal, then each person of faith must find the love of Jesus on their own. Just as every relationship on Earth is unique and special, so too is each relationship with Jesus. That’s why we cannot say that faith is cultural, nor can we make blind assumptions about every person of faith.

Mass should not be boring, nor should conversations about faith be combative.

Faith is about love, deep personal love that is found in each and every soul.

I have written quite a bit about the “God so loved the world” portion of John 3:16, but the second half is just as important. “So that everyone who believes in Him” in particular. Part of loving a person, which is what we of faith are called to do, is loving what our beloved loves. For Christians, we must love every person that Jesus loves.

Do you see the catch?

Jesus Christ does not just love His people, but every single soul He has ever created. 

Whether they believe in Him or not, He chose to get on the Cross and die for them. You see, if we love Jesus and take our faith as personal and not cultural, then we will not need to worry about the labels we put on other people. 

“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves Me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.” ~John 10:16-17

It doesn’t matter what someone’s faith label is because each and every soul on Earth is worthy of love. Faith is a question of whom we love, not what we can and cannot do. Faith is a question of how we love, not what we thing is good. Faith is a question of the heart, not the mind.

I have been told numerous times that I need to stop spending so much time loving those who do not share my faith tradition.

I used to be like that. I used to believe that if a soul does not accept my faith that there is something fundamentally wrong with their soul. Then, as I was introduced to numerous beautiful souls filled with love, I discovered that there is absolutely nothing wrong with their soul. What was wrong was how I refused to love them as Christ does every day.

Everyone is worthy of true love.

We cannot encounter God without an encounter with love in its purest form. That love is sacrifice. That love is scary. That love is a risk, and we are likely to die to ourselves for the sake of love for another soul. Until we recognize that each soul is worthy of a deeply personal and unique love, we will not be able to overcome cultural faith, and conversations about religion will continue to be a battle.

But if we see love in others…

Maybe then Heaven wouldn’t feel so far away.

My faith may appear to be strong, and it may appear that I know many things. However, I know barely anything about Catholicism outside of the basics. What I do know about is the Communion of Saints, which is a Heavenly Family which extends through Heaven and Earth in love.

I know love.

Where did I find love?

As a young child, my parents taught me that Jesus is in the heart of every person I encounter. They did not want us to get in the wrong crowds, of course, but they wanted each Newton child to love their neighbor with all of their heart. As I grew up, I started to discover that piece of God in every person I met.

But you know where I see God the most in a human heart?

In those who believe that do not have His love and in those who share His love with everyone.

You see, many of us with faith fake it so as to keep up with the culture. Yet when someone takes faith as personal, there is something different about their demeanor. They go to all people, and they spend time loving each person individually. When we make faith about our love for Jesus, then we become more real.

But what about the “loveless souls?”

They are real my Dear Readers. The souls who do not believe that God loves them or that He could love anyone are genuine. What is so special about these souls is not that they are against our God. It is that God is still with them, protecting them and loving them.

You see, even the souls who reject Jesus still have hope in something. They still believe in love.

When I fell in love with Jesus I fell in love with each heart He made. As such, I started to listen to those who do not know Jesus Christ personally. With each heartbreaking story, all I could hear was how the Holy Spirit held their heart as tightly as He could. All I could see was how immensely loved this soul must be if the God of the Universe allowed them to continue to believe in hope and love without even believing in the One who is love.

I will never know if the souls I have loved for Christ will ever know His name.

But I do know that I love Him all the more because of them.