Sacrificial Suffering Love

I spent time this afternoon with a friend of mine who is a Benedictine monk. We walked by the C&O Canal in Washington, D.C., and I asked him many questions. One was about how to respond to and try to accept someone mistreating you or doing something to you that hurts you. This is about the problems my housemate and I have been having that I've discussed in previous posts. (Here and here) He said his way of handling it is to make sure that he does not inflict pain back on the person who caused him pain. He tries to find someway to let them know that they hurt him without hurting them back. GUT PUNCH! This is not what I did to Brian. I shared my feelings about what I felt he'd done thathurt Ime in a way designed to hurt him back and hopefully, in my mind at the time, hurt him worse than he hurt me.

As I thought about how wrong my way of handelingthis was I thought of my relationship with Jesus. I asked how my monk friend knows He loves Jesus. He says by his willingness to join his suffering to Christ’s on the Cross. I said that is love to you and he said it is the example that Christ set for us. GUT PUNCH 2!

This is love, to sacrifice and suffer for others without inflicting any pain or suffering back on them. I think to myself do I really want to love if this is what love is? I will have to think on this.

Human-Written, AI Spell-Checked 3/10/21 AD

Image from laycistercians.com