Loving for me these days has been easier than anytime in the past. I am surrounded by people who sincerely care for me and who think the world of me. People in my life today are persons whom I have truly decided to love – no matter what. Really, how can I not be a loving person with people like these in my life?
When I was still employed and working, I would come to the office to face people whose guts I hated and people who could not stand me either. We would often just get into each other’s nerves and on good days, we treated one another with sufferance. But work with them, I must. And somehow we got things done.
Is there virtue in loving when it hardly takes any real effort on my part? Was I a better ‘lover’ when I had to deal with impossible people? Today, there are still people in my life that are my ‘enemies’ who do not seem to be worth loving. Like, dirty politicians, greedy businessmen, crazed extremists and fundamentalists, self-righteous persecutors of believers, selfish polluters of the environment, bigots, etc. I can forgive and love them safely from a distance. Does that count for virtue?
Love is pure but it often has to be muddied and soiled, Love is beautiful but it has sometimes to confront and deal with ugliness. Love is life-giving but it has often to bear with pain and suffering and sometimes, even death. Love is truth but it has to live with lies. But in the end, love conquers all.