Guest Blog: "The Way of Love" by the Rev. Mike Fedewa

Mike Fedewa has served as Rector of St. Andrew's in Grand Rapids since 1992.  His first assignment in the Diocese of Western Michigan was as an assistant to the rector at St. Thomas in Battle Creek from 1986-1990.  In his many years in diocese he has served on many committees.  Currently he is a member of the transition team.  Mike has been married to Linda for 28 years.   They are parents of three sons, but he and Linda  are still too young to be grandparents.  Mike was raised in Michigan and enjoys all things about living in western Michigan, especially camping, fishing, and baseball.    About once a month, Mike travels to churches around the country to preach on behalf of Food for the Poor.

As some of you know, it is the custom of the Brothers at St. Gregory’s in Three Rivers to observe silence during the meals.   While eating the brothers and guests listen to the reading of a book.   While on retreat at St. Gregory's last winter, we listened to a book entitled Peace Be With You; Monastic Wisdom for a Terror Filled World. The readings I heard during my retreat were powerful enough that I purchased the book early this summer.   I have been reading the book over the course of the month of September.

In this book, the author, David Carlson recounts visits he made some years after 2001 to various monasteries and convents located in the United States.  In this visit, Carlson interviews monks and nuns who were members of those communities on September 11, 2001.  The monks and nuns remember for Carlson how their communities reacted to the news of that terror filled days.  They also shared with Carlson reflections about how these communities, and indeed how the country and world have changed since that day.  Those interviewed bring the wisdom of their disciplined life of solitude and prayer to these reflections.

While at Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky, Carlson reflects on an epiphany written by Thomas Merton.  That epiphany occurred for Merton on March 18, 1958 at the corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets in Louisville Kentucky.   He writes “I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.”  Carlson writes that this message of radical unity is what we need to survive in a world that is splintering apart.

Later, Carlson remembers an awareness that came to him during his visit to St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville Minnesota.   Carlson writes:  The only way out, is to love our way out.  “The challenge of 9/11 is spiritual, not simply political or military.” 
As we enter the twelfth year of the wars that began soon after September 11, 2001, it is obvious that despite the trillions of dollars spent on the wars, the thousands of people who have been injured or killed, the fact remains that we have still not found our way out.   Current events in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries of the region remind us that we still live in a terror filled world.   Violence and war escalate. We are still lost.

Only the way of love lived by Jesus, the Prince of Peace, will lead us out of the terrors of our day.  This is not a sweet and easy love that comes when we all sing “kumbaya” together.  This is the love that finds its meaning in the cross.  This is the love that comes when one lays down one’s life for the beloved.  Indeed, this is the love that comes when one gives oneself for our enemies.

How do we live in a terror filled world?  How do we live in times of fear, and anxiety?   How do we live in a world that seems to be splintering?

Carlson offers us image of our radical unity.   Those we think of as “they” are ours, and we are “theirs."

Carlson calls us to place our hope not in the power of politics or the military.   Our hope must be spiritual.   Indeed, the spiritual life offers the only true hope for the world.