Love, faith and imagination

I wish I could be saying right now that I am back and refreshed after a long break from blogging (about 3 months now), but I am actually feeling a bit sick and anything from refreshed, despite being on holidays. But I thought I would write again anyway. So let's get back onto thoughts of love.

In my last post I spoke of love as a sense; something which can comprehend in another that which evokes our love. I have been reading a book by Caroline Simon (still) which talks about the role of imagination in love. She seems quite influenced by a single thought from Simone Weil about the good Samaritan who actually stopped to help the person bashed and bloodied on the side of the road.

"One of the two is only a little piece of flesh naked, inert, and bleeding beside a ditch; he is nameless; no one knows anything about him. those who pass by scarcely notice it, and a few minutes afterward they do not even know that they saw it. Only one stops and turns his attention toward it. The actions that follow are just the automatic effect of this moment of attention. The attention is creative. But at the moment when it is engaged it is a renunciation. this is true, at leas, if it is pure. The man accepts to be diminished by concentrating on an expenditure of energy, which will not extend his own power but will only give existence to a being other than himself, who will exist independently of him. Still more, to desire the existence of the other is to transport himself into him by sympathy, and as a result, to have a share in the state of inert matter which is his." (From Waiting for God by Simone Weil).

This excerpt points to the moment of comprehension in which the Samaritan beheld the man and had love for him (pity/sympathy). The actions which followed were the response of love. Caroline Simon believes that the human imagination plays a role here also, enabling us to see beyond what is visible on the surface, to the thing of immense value which cannot be seen. She would possibly say that imagination plays more the role of seeing what could be rather than seeing what is, or to use words closer to her words, comprehending that this person has a story and a destiny rather than merely seeing what is.

There are so many aspects in this little excerpt that need to be explored: what is it that causes the Samaritan to stop and pay more attention? What is is he sees that evokes the response of love? Is there anything particularly Christian about this? What role does imagination have in this? What role does faith have? In what way is his loving response a 'renunciation'?

To provide a little more background into the story of the Samaritan a few things need to be noted: (1) Jesus was telling this story to answer the question of 'who is my neighbour' just after stating that the second greatest commandment was to love our neighbours as ourselves. (2) In the story two Jewish holy men walked by without stopping; a priest and a Levite. It seems these men were prevented from loving the man due to their conceptions of law and holiness, which prevented them from defiling themselves with anything unclean (e.g. blood). What they saw in the man was something that would defile them and render them unable to perform their holy duties. But the Samaritan was already despised by the Jews. Samaritans held a somewhat common religious background to the Jews and maintained copies of the Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament) which they held as scripture, but they were a mixed race (i.e. impure as sons of Abraham). I am not sure if the Samaritan would be considered defiled by his understanding of the law by helping the bleeding man. By defiling himself there is certainly a 'renunciation' involved in acting in love. Even without defiling himself there is a sacrifice of time and money; a renunciation of his immediate plans and some of his possessions. We would say that there is often sacrifice in love, though it does not always seem like a sacrifice to give to someone else for their own sake.

To recast the story in today's terms, we might find the robbed man replaced by a homeless drug addict with his thumb out on the side of a road looking for a lift. Many cars with 'good' people drive right on by; they have to keep their kids safe in the back seat, they don't have any money on them to give him, he looks dangerous, and he could have hepatitis for all they know. In any case they are on their way to church or a family function and don't want to be late. While all the cars go past a taxi stops. The bum apprehensively opens the door and looks in to see the Arab driver looking back at him. There is a moment of silence as they look at each other and the bum explains he doesn't have any money for a fare. The driver explains there will be no fare and asks him where he wants to go. "To the city, where I can find shelter and food." Instead the driver takes him to his own house, lets him use his shower, gives him some of his own clothes, a meal and a bed. Introduces him to his family, and asks him about his story.

The bulk of people saw a dirty bum, worried about germs and violence, and felt indifferent or incapable of helping. But one man was willing to wear the cost (renunciation), whatever it might have been. Why? What did he see in the bum that others did not see? (or is my definition of love wrong and it is nothing to do with perceiving something that evokes a loving response). the taxi driver might have been a muslim, and thus his love was not 'Christian'. Does that matter? Is there a difference between Christian and non-Christian love. I know there are some (such as Bonhoeffer) who would say yes.

Is it by faith that we 'assume' there is something to love in some people? Is it by imagination that we 'create' something to love, or see what could be? Is it by mere arbitrary choice that we choose to love a person regardless of what we see (and somehow not manufacture the works of love without having the actual love)? Or is it by faith that we assume there is something to love in each person and therefore take the time to search for it, that we might evoke a genuine response of love? There are still some who would say we love because Christ first loved us; because he commands us to, and for no other reason. But I ask, what is it you are doing when you are loving this way? What is the love?

Perhaps there is a distinctly Christian love, as I am sure Caroline Simon will point out as I continue to read her book. She uses 'imagination' where I use 'faith', to acknowledge that each person has a destiny, she seems to be pointing to the position that it is the perception of the destiny that is the thing which evokes our love response. To put it another way, our destinies are given by God, it is his creative and redemptive work in us, and as we perceive God at work in the other, God-in-us joins in to complete his work. As we perceive God working in another (Christian or non Christian) we work with him. This is love's creative aspect, this is its Christian aspect, it is where faith and imagination are required (and hope, but I will look at that another time). It is where we need to see beyond what is plainly visible to that which is invisible, and to that which may not yet exist except in the realms of pure potential.

Here ends the chapter!

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