I don’t have an easy answer if we think love is only a feeling. Of course, it is that. But it is much more.
It is taking care to make your home safe for your infant or your elderly relative living with you. It is taking care to clean your hands before you serve food to people. It is taking care of the car you drive so that it does not leak oil into our drinking water. It is taking care to accept taxes as the price we pay for fire protection, safe roads, and competent civil services. It is taking care to vote for candidates who will best serve the people, even though you might not agree with all their opinions.
And it is taking care to hold your neighbor accountable for crimes against humanity. That might be expressed in hoping for them to be arrested, charged, tried, and, if found guilty of such crimes, imprisoned or made to serve out some form of civil restitution.
It is expressed by speaking up to your neighborhood and speaking to your neighbor about the accountability we all have as humans to do what is right, and to take care of our world and our neighbors so that we all prosper.
Some will use religion to buttress their conversations about doing right. Some will point to philosophical or political arguments about the ways to achieve a just and honest society.
But the ultimate foundation is our moral sense that it is not right to harm my neighbor by the actions of destruction or the inaction of neglect.
This is something most people feel innately as part of their humanity. For those of us with a religious background, we call this the Imago Dei—the image of God that is part of our constitution as human beings that recognizes right from wrong, celebrates the good, and laments evil.
For those of us without a religious background, we call it the general moral sense of most people, based upon the years of the evolution of the human species to be formed with this innate sense of moral duty.
The urge for moral duty is, I think, something that marks us as human, but it is not restricted to humans. We see it in the way animals care for their young, raise their offspring, and in the way they tend to the sick among them.
It is what we call into being when we do our moral duty to speak out to our neighbors to do right by other people, so that we all show care for one another.
It is something most of us are taught from an early age in our homes, schools, religious assemblies, and social environments.
Do what is right, even when it’s hard.
Take care of others, even when it’s hard.
Be honest with yourself about your strengths and flaws; be open to others reminding you to stay true to what you know is true and correct; and be receptive to course-correction from unexpected and sometimes unwanted sources.
Be kind to those who are struggling to stay afloat, especially when it’s hard.
Supporting the truth is not something new when we hear it.
It is not something new when we say it.
It is just a reminder of our humanity.
And it is the way to love our neighbors when they commit atrocities. “Here are the standards of human connections, and when you do this, you break those connections to harm someone. That action for harm comes with consequences, not acceptance.”
Loving your neighbor means holding them accountable to our common principles and common humanity, and it means there is a time when the consequences of violence and terror and destruction will be paid by those who commit the acts.
Warning them away from the actions is a way to show love by warning them away from the consequences.
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