Your Reminder to Spread Radical Love

Dear Friends,

There have been many revolutions throughout history. Revolutions for power, for freedom, to overthrow injustice and evil institutions. But the most powerful and successful revolution is the revolution of love. This revolution began 2,000 years ago with the most famous revolutionary of all time: Jesus. 

Jesus was radical. Dying on the cross was radical. Jesus was innocent and he could have escaped and avoided all the pain and suffering. The Cross is radical love. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Jesus poured himself out for us on the Cross, but this was just the final expression of what he had been doing every day during his public life. He was constantly pouring himself out for others. Then he would go away

to a quiet place to get reenergized so that he could pour himself out again.

Jesus was a radical and his revolution was one of love. And billions of people have followed him, becoming revolutionaries across the globe.

Adelaide of Italy was one of these revolutionaries. After escaping an unwanted engagement and years of tumult in her life, Adelaide married Otto I, who became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Breaking the common mold, Adelaide was the first empress of the Holy Roman Empire who shared a significant degree of power with her husband. But she didn’t use that power for personal political gain. She used it to protect the people under her care. She received subjects from all over the empire, mediated their disputes, and responded to their needs. She protected many institutions of the Church from political and physical attack. She opened many monasteries, churches and abbeys to spread the radical love of Jesus across the empire.

You and I may not have influence over an empire. But we do have influence right where we are. Will you join in the revolution of love, too, in your own way, in your own corner of the world?  

Let’s resolve, right now, to love as we have never loved before: 

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4–8).

May peace be with you this Advent. God bless!