WHERE IS LOVE?

I probably should stop reading the news and just hide in the quiet confines of ignorance and apathy.  I should close my eyes and feign blindness as the world grapples with the ugliness that society heaps upon itself.  I should be deaf to the cries of injustice that put a stranglehold to truth and civility.  I should be inured and impassive to the glut of nonsensical and nefarious rubbish that foolish individuals spew out to dignify their risible outlook on issues that matter.   After all, who am I?  I can't change people and I'm powerless to change things.

The last couple of weeks were particularly hard and emotionally draining for a lot of people as the nation's security was again severely compromised.  As the events in Boston flashed in the news media and brought to us in explicitly painful, graphic detail the carnage of innocent individuals,  our sense of well-being was altered, our haven of peace was violated and we were left dazed in that precarious state of disbelief of what was true and glaringly real. 

Prior to that event, the news started to cover the trial of an individual who hid behind the protective cloak of his profession to commit unspeakable, monstrous acts against the helpless human beings who were born, yet unborn, alive, yet dead,  according to his warped and evil pronouncement.  In many ways, he was a career criminal, an executioner, a murder-for-hire monster who used his title to commit vile acts with impunity.   Sanctioned by society and the band of individuals who championed the right to kill through abortion, this physician who swore to heal and protect life never flinched in his unconscionable rampage to deny the unborn the right to life even as they breathed, even as they helplessly cried, even as their tiny arms struggled to ward off his merciless hand as he snipped their spinal cord.  These were not human acts by any stretch of the imagination.  Animals behaved with more caring, intelligence and compassion.   As we contemplated  these societal issues and problems that threatened to destroy the best in people, those values and feelings, and emotions that made us human, don't we wrestle to find the answer to the question, "Where is love"?

As we peel off that coating of respectability imbued by civilization, the essence of who we really are is well concealed within the sophisticated layers of refinement and culture.  Kindness, humanity, decency, integrity, and a myriad of other  values that we need to cultivate and nurture to be "quality" human beings cannot be developed outside ourselves albeit we can look up to others that we can emulate.  But unless we actively practice those principles,  they will lie forever dormant in the recesses of the soul.  And love, that vital emotion that morphs from those values, will not have the chance to grow if we never provided that environment where it can thrive and evolve.

So where is love?  The young boy, Oliver, in Charles Dickens'  "Oliver Twist" desperately asked the same gut-wrenching question. Has our society lost that vital emotion to the cruel and callous disregard that other human beings frequently exhibit toward others?  As I reflect on that question,  the sense of gloom and doom that has initially wrenched my spirit to fill with rancor, is replaced by that supernal peace that only God can provide.   There comes that reassuring voice of the Spirit that soothes the soul like flashes of light in the midst of an encircling gloom.

Where is love?  It is spoken in hushed tones of encouragement as rescuers lend a helping hand to the victims of  the Boston bombing.  It is in the unselfish acts of kindness of virtual strangers who open their homes to those who are searching for their loved ones amid the confusion of the day.  It is displayed in many forms - in the clasped hands of an unidentified woman as she lifts her head towards the sky in prayer,  in the heroic efforts of peacekeepers to find the culprits without regard for their personal safety, in the tears and prayers of a nation,  even in the concern expressed by the global community through social media sites that gives the victims the assurance that they are not alone.  

The recent unfortunate tragedy in Boston encapsulates society's caring side but it is not a solitary incident nor an unusual occurrence.  It is demonstrated every day in quiet acts of kindness that do not clamor for recognition.  It is there as neighbors help neighbors in many, many unheralded display of what is good and decent in all of us.  The kindly deed of good Samaritans that come to the rescue of someone unfamiliar is love in action, that spark of the divine from Him who is love personified.  It is entrenched in kind words, in the warmth of a simple smile, in the comfort of a gentle touch.   We have been haplessly jaded by society's ills so when horrific things happen, cynicism, doubt,  pessimism and hopelessness will sometimes inhibit us from seeing the beauty that is still present in the hearts of people.  But when we endeavor to search deeper, down in the substratum of the spirit where the best in humanity is safely and firmly tucked in,  we will find that exquisite spark that will drive away the obsidian fiend of despair that threatens to destroy us.  Then we will no longer ask and wonder, "Where is love"?  For we can find it here,  still living and beating mightily within us.