Agapetheism for Beginners

 

“Always we begin again.” –St. Benedict.

These words by one of the founders of early monastic Christianity ring true as they apply to the practice of unconditional, divine love.  We're always beginners at love, because when a new day dawns, fresh challenges face us in doing it.

1 John 4:8:  "...God is love."  And that "love" is, in the original biblical Greek, "agape".

An agapetheist is someone who begins again at love, at every dawn.  Love that is deep, unflinching, non-judgmental, open-minded, open-hearted attention to all that is within and beyond us.  And if we're paying that kind of attention to others and to ourselves, compassionate action will follow naturally.

Agapetheism is much more about doing divine love than it is about believing that love is God.  You'll know you've met an agapetheist not so much by their religious profession as by their way of being, by their kindness to others.  An agapetheist is too busy with agape to make a big deal about being an agapetheist. 

Agapetheism is such an awesome and overwhelming undertaking that it makes any other kind of "ism" pale in significance.  Religion, politics, ethnicity, and all other forms of identity recede in importance. 

In the 8th chapter of Matthew we find the wonderful mythic story of a Roman centurion who humbly came to Jesus to ask for healing for his servant, who was paralyzed and in terrible distress.  The centurion loved and cared for his servant across the lines of economic class and status, and, out of love, walked across the line between Roman occupiers and occupied Jews.  Jesus was amazed by him, and said, "Truly tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith."  Jesus was so blown away by the centurion's love that he, in turn, crossed the line between Gentiles and Jews.  "And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.” And the servant was healed in that hour."  It was a moment when Israelism and Romanism were set aside.  It is a story that reminds us to put Christianism aside, too, when it gets in the way of divine compassion.

Agape love crosses the line, again and again, between us and them, you and me.  It crosses the line between inside and outside, self and other, flesh and spirit.  Agape is undocumented migrant love, walking over the artificial borders that keep us from communing with each other, with the universe, and with the depths of our own souls.  Agape is non-binary love, taking the forms it needs to manifest in order to give and to serve.

Agapetheism is the humility of the centurion, and the awe that Jesus had for him.  Always we begin again, day by day, to practice it...