How to Remake the World

And why it's on each of us to play a part

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11

There is this light in the human heart — in every human heart — that holds within it the entire universe. Mystics and sages have called this light by many names, but it resists them all, for it arises out of a greater Light that transcends all naming. Like all light, it is eternal, free from the restrictions of space and time. Free, also, of any sense of separation. It is everything, and everyone, every when, and everywhere, and from its center, nothing about this is confusing in the least. Rather, it is pure delight. It is knowing and being known. It is belonging. It is love. It is who we really are, and all we long to become. 

It is this light in us, this truest part of us, that we all struggle to preserve. This is as true for the serial killer as it is for the saint. The Imago Dei shines brightly in each, springing as it does from the same Source, though the serial killer has lost his connection to this light, and thus to himself as he is meant to be. He does not realize that when he kills another, he kills himself, for they are one. The same is true when we kill him, for he is also one with us.

What, then, ought to be done with those who have become lost, separated from the light of God within them? To kill them is to kill ourselves. To hate them is to hate ourselves. To isolate them is to isolate ourselves. To judge and condemn them is to judge and condemn ourselves. And even if we do these things, thinking it is better to amputate them from the world, as one might a diseased hand or eye, does this resolve it? No, because now have become the one who kills its own light. Besides, are we not all like him? Are we not all lost, separated from the light of God within?

This is why the answer is love. Only love restores the severed connection. Only love heals the deep rift in the heart. Only love opens the eyes to see the light of God again. There is no other solution to this loss of connection inside us all. And, no other solution is needed. 

Love is more than enough.

It is this love — love for the enemy, the killer, the other — that Jesus taught, and demonstrated with his own life, by laying it down for those who failed to see the truth of who he is … by which of course I mean all of us. 

To love in the face of violence, in the face of hatred, in the face of greed and fear and small-mindedness, is not weak. On the contrary, it is the holy fire of God that ignites revolution. A disordered heart can shut itself off from all reason. It can deceive itself to believe anything it wants. But it is defenseless against love. Love shakes the darkened soul awake. Love shines a light that heals the blind so they can see. Love is a weapon orders of magnitude more powerful and effective than all the machines of war humans have made. 

So the prayers of the saints cease being prayers and become battle strategies for the armies of God who fight for love:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.” — St Francis of Assisi

This, and this only, is how we remake the world.