Praying for a Season of Agape

In the heyday of popular entertainer Tina Turner, one of her hit songs “What’s Love Got to Do with It” (1984) would echo in the minds of millions of fans without much in-depth reflection.  The refrain was followed by “Love is nothing but a second hand emotion.”  Those born in the shadows of the 80s, like Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, may have been milked on these lyrics, or something similar,  because their proclaimed seasons of love (Summer of Love and now Winter of Love) are worse than “second hand emotions”  They are inflated with arrogance, obstinance, defiance, rebellion, carnal passion, slander/libel, envy, and obnoxious self love.

 
Even the Greeks would have labeled their proclamations of love as one of the nine lower forms, chief among them:   Eros (passionate), Ludus (playful), Philia (value commonality), Mania (obsessive), and Philautia (self—ego driven).

 
However, so called moralists on the other side of rageful protest tend to spout hatred with online rebuttals laced with viral arsenic.  That one is supporting law enforcement does not excuse calling for violence against perceived rebels, sometimes in the vilest terms.  (I do so admire the commentator who consistently posts the Hail Mary and Our Father-among other prayers-every time postings fuel division and discord.  Speaking of… 

 
What we must seek is a national Season of Agape, love’s highest form of expression and living, being unconditionally self sacrificial, self giving and forgiving, in words and deeds.   As Catholics, we have no excuse as our Faith provide us in knowledge, understanding, and assistance in sharing such love and as Jesus Christ was Agape in Person.  We are called to respond and act, including loving our enemies as ourselves and blessing those who curse us, in the imitation of Christ, leaving diabolical forces for God to destroy.  

 
Moreover, there is a caveat, it would be prudent to establish that many of those who most infuriate the civic minded are genuinely confused about the nature of love; some are mentally ill; millions have been spiritually malnourished. As to those who should know better but react in prideful ways, unnecessarily inflaming emotionalism,  or cruelly taunting or ridiculing the ignorant, we must still concede that love absent humility and confession, will tend to the lower forms.  

 
Catholics must be prayerful, patient and perseverant.  If feasible, start the day in Holy Mass.  Prompt self redirection to such powerful prayers as the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet can squelch temptation to angry reactivity and generate effacious heavenly aid.   In the evening self examination of conscience can lead away from nursing grievances and help plan tomorrow’s place of action.   Scripture is a powerful guide, too.   

Exemplification of Agape was never better framed than in St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 13:1-13, a stark in-depth contrast to what is being displayed across the nation and hatefully fueled by power brokers of all political stripes, acting on lower levels of love, though some are closer to the fullness of authentic love than others:

 
If I speak in human and angelic tongues  but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.  And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 
Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.  For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

 
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

 
So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 
Persons of exemplary character will aspire to the ideal and strive to thrive virtuously.  

 
What’s love got to do with it?  Agape has everything to do with this crisis.  I am hoping that the Bishops who so vigorously tout worldly “rights” —though not  bad reminders in themselves—focus more on the salvation of souls for …all of us…rich and poor, native and foreigner, the mighty and the weak.

 
Let us all share St. Paul’s Letter!  Better, let us model it.