To love more and to love more often

Playing on my mp3 player as I write this: Walk on”, U2’s anthem for Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, a brave and courageous woman lady who bravely stands up against the repression in her country even at the cost of her liberty and possibly her life.

After being stopped from leading a march against repression and being placed again under house arrest, Suu Kyi finds herself in familiar surroundings—a bird in a gilded cage--Bono wails, begs, pleads with Suu Kyi to walk on against repression in her country, in great courage with great faith and with all hope that one day her country will be free and that she, and her fellow Burmese, may walk on without restraint, without borders, without danger—free.

A shining example to many, me most especially, Suu Kyi’s struggles to liberate her country men strikes a deep, deep chord in me.

It is not as if she could not walk on and out of Burma, free. The military junta that rules Burma now would want nothing better than that—so that they could be rid of her. She chose to stay. She chose to not be able to walk on, freely. She chose to be in her country, with her countrymen. She chose to suffer with them; to be bound with them; to share their burden; to struggle with them; to stand in solidarity with them.

Suu Kyi’s solidarity with her people reflects another man’s solidarity with His. Jesus, the Christ of God, chose to be born of and to man; He chose to stay with His human parents, Joseph and Mary; He chose to not be able to walk on, freely; He chose to be with His countrymen—living their lives, sharing their burdens as well as their joys; He chose to stand in solidarity with them—with Us.

Like Christ, Suu Kyi could have chosen freedom but she did not. Like Christ, Suu Kyi could have chosen to live her life for herself but she did not. Like Christ, Suu Kyi could have chosen to just walk on, but she did not.

I, who am free, often do walk on blithely, uncaring of many things around me. I, who am free, often do walk on as if my life were to be lived for myself only.

At the start of the year, 2006, I made no resolutions and I performed no rituals. I did make a decision, a conscious choice: to love more and to love more often. I choose not to just walk on if it means being uncaring; I choose not to just walk on if it means not being able to love more and love more often; I choose not to just walk on if it means not being to stand in solidarity with all those that Christ came to save.

Lord, I pray for the grace to be able to stand for You, stand for Your people, and, in so standing, to love more and love more often.