“Love thinks no evil” (1Corinthians 13: 5). Being human means thinking evil, for humans are in a constant state of fear. We do not want to see our weaknesses, so we do not have to get rid of them. We think evil about others, for in this we find comfort and excuse. Our eyes see through others’ hearts, yet only God knows hearts. We conceive our own images of others. But the real image necessitates mercy, a quality rarely found amongst humans. God wants us, first and foremost, to trust others. Trust will help them improve and make them more trustworthy. Everyone deserves to be trusted, for confidence strengthens and reforms us. Trusting someone is your connection to him and his way to God.
“Love suffers long and is kind”. It requires patience, and the latter requires listening carefully to others, understanding them as they are, seeing their good aspects, even if they shouted or cursed. They may be shouting because they are suffering, because they thought evil. They also see us through the image they have conceived for us. No one knows anyone except through the images we take of each other, though these images are often unfair. The apostle also claims that love endures all things, all harm. Some people want to hurt us, to trample us and see us trampled. Despite all this, we shall be patient, for perhaps we may deliver them from their misery. They do not know that they are harming themselves by harming us. They do not know that they hate themselves. We shall grant them tenderness because it is their last chance for salvation. We shall be kind to protect them for the aggressiveness of their own hearts. We shall neither rave nor revenge. The other is the one who is present, and his presence will increase if we were kind, so he shall be a new person.
Fear of isolation makes us offend people, and we think that this will help us enhance our identity. But, we do not know that only the Holy Spirit can vanish this isolation if we received It in our soul to temper it. The base of all this is that people are weak. And the weak needs the strong to console him and support him. Therefore, we shall not ask him about what he is doing against us or against himself, for what is important is to relieve him of his agony. Perhaps the love we grant would help him get out of his selfishness in which he used to confine himself. The confrontation is quite difficult; because he must destroy the walls which he thinks are protecting him. His consciousness is a weapon against the fake veil behind which he is hiding. It is tormenting to see yourself naked, for numerous are the defects you will discover; yet this is the first step of the remedy. Our concern is his healing. But we shall avoid severity, for our tenderness will let him recognize that we are veiling him with a garment of light. He will be happy to know that he can be adorned with lightsome apparel. And we shall also rejoice in the truth that has been bestowed upon him and has changed him.
Every one is capable of being great in the eyes of God. But he will not see this greatness unless our patience, forbearance and kindness made him feel loved. No one is forever condemned to dwell in darkness. No one is completely enlightened or completely dark. Even the enlightened needs to be consoled and supported to prevent him from getting tired of his virtue and considering it dry. As for the dark one, we need to tell him that he can save himself by accepting the salvation God has made available for him.
This is the story of life. People rescue people. Those who have their God in them, who have felt His presence, can show to others His beauty, so they shall leap like deer and wonder. Aspiring to perfection is possible, and insisting on beauty is a demand to the soul that yearns for beauty. Every soul is originally beautiful, for God in it is its beauty. And every soul can move towards God, for God moves it. But all this requires the soul to be open, to carve righteousness and grace bearing. It would then be new as the dawn.
Translated by Amani Haddad
Original Text: “المحبة لا تظن السوء” – 10.12.95
