“The love for equals is a human thing–of friend for friend, brother for
brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.
The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing–the love for those who
suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This
is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.
The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing–to love those who succeed
where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of
the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is
always bewildered by its saints.
And then there is the love for the enemy–love for the one who does not love
you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The love of the tortured for
the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.”
Frederick Buechner in his book, The Magnificent Defeat.
