How Do You Love a Terrorist?

Somebody asked me, “Why don’t you write a blog post about how to love an Islamic terrorist into submission.

I like a challenge, so here goes.

You don’t start with the terrorist. You start with yourself. By God’s grace you may get to the point where you are so filled with love that you live a life of love. You don’t even know you’re doing it–except now and again you notice yourself living for everyone else but yourself.

You stop being so self obsessed. You stop being so concerned about your own pleasure. You start genuinely caring for other people and you start being interested in them and compassionate.

You then start to be truly happy, truly free, truly and fully human.

Your influence starts to spread. You make a loving family. You make a loving parish. You make a loving school. You make a loving community.  You make a loving town. These are not simply communities of feel good nice people going around smiling and being squeaky clean.

These are communities of people who roll up their sleeves, feed the hungry, help the poor, mend marriages, adopt orphans, fight against evil and worship God in beauty, truth and goodness.

What if it was not just you, but even 10% of all those who are baptized and call themselves followers of Jesus Christ? In other words, what if Christians simply started being Christians?

Everybody–Islamic terrorists included–would either love such a faith and convert or, being demon possessed, they would growl, hiss and spit and hate such a faith and bomb it, rape it, crush it, run cars into it, torture it and kill it.

Now let me go and say my rosary. Today is the Sorrowful Mysteries.