Loving the world

THE Gospel has warned us about the world being one of the enemies of our
soul. St. John is clear about this: “For all that is in the world, are the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1 Jn 2,16)

And yet the world is where we are. It is where our Lord has placed us. We believe it was created not only for us to stay in, but also for us to develop. As such, it is good and holds a tremendous meaning for us.

The problem, of course, is that we have spoiled and perverted it. And it now has the effects of our sin, such that if we are not careful, it can lead us away from God and bring us to our own destruction.

But originally the world is good. It just needs to be purified and reconciled with God, which is now our task, with God’s grace, of course, and thoroughly applying his teachings.

Just the same, we should always remember our Lord’s words: “God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” (Jn 3,16)

Ergo, we too should love the world. I would say, we have to passionately love it. But we have to do it properly, that is, with the love of Christ. That’s the only way. Again, our Lord says: “For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him.” (Jn 3,17)

There are two extremes to avoid with respect to our attitude toward the world. One is to so hate the world that you would not like to have anything to do with it. You run away from it. You consider the world as naturally evil.

The other is to love it in such a disordered way it becomes everything to you. It becomes our God, our end-all, our definitive destiny and home. Our fate is completely tied with that of the world. There’s nothing beyond it.

There are a few of us, those with a religious vocation, etc., whose lifestyle puts them at a certain distance from the world. This is not because they hate the world, but rather because they want to give witness to our final destination, which is not in this world.

But for most of us, for the tremendous majority of the Christian faithful, we ought to live right there in the middle of the world, making it our very own, and making ourselves the primary agents responsible for its life and development. We should not run away from it.

We are of this world, and in this world, but we should not be worldly. We have to understand that the world is the necessary setting for the main drama of our life—to build our love for God, for others and ourselves precisely through the things of this world.

Thus, our attitude toward the world should be that of a healthy, vibrant love, knowing that our supernatural fate depends on how we live our life in this world.

We should be very interested in developing the world, actualizing whatever potentials it possesses for the purpose of giving glory to God, of serving others and of perfecting ourselves.

That is to say that whenever we do business and politics, whenever we go into creative work or plunge into the sciences, or immerse ourselves in cultural activities, etc., this should be the motive to drive us.

We have to learn to look, find, love and serve God and others in these earthly affairs. The problem we have at the moment is that even among Christian believers, this attitude is agonizingly missing.

We have to be convinced that only in this way can we properly love the world. Thus, we have to learn to be real contemplatives in the world. Outside of this condition, we will be abusing the world, in spite of the wonderful accomplishments we may be making.