Newtown and Now Watertown: For the Second Time in Four Months our Entire Nation Held its Breath

This is the second time since December that young men terrified and terrorized our nation. Still shell shocked and reeling from the heartless slayings at Newtown, our nation now has to process the events of this week’s Boston Massacre. Our national nightmare started with the deadly explosions at the end of the Boston Marathon last Monday afternoon. For the next three days, the fear of the unknown made for a restless and frightened nation, as we waited at the edge of our seats for some answers, and lived in dread of what other manmade disasters might still await us. The much anticipated bloodshed continued on Thursday night with the shooting at MIT and the death of a young police officer, Sean Collier. Early Friday morning the nearby Boston suburb of Watertown, with its usually sleepy streets, turned into a war zone with guns going off and explosive devises being thrown. These events left one suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, dead, and another on the lam. The larger than life drama culminated Friday evening with the people of our nation glued to their television sets watching suspect No. 2, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old younger brother of Tamerlan, captured.

What can any of us do in the wake of these two unspeakable tragedies? We can learn to be emissaries of love. Truly, what the world needs now is love, sweet love -- agape love that is.

Agape love is altruistic, unconditional love for humankind and all God’s creations. Agape love gives reverence to all things. This is the kind of love that is spoken of in the traditional religious texts.

Agape love is kind, patient, tolerant, and nonjudgmental. This is the kind of love that God has for all of us. Agape love asks --not, “What you can do for me?” but “What can I do for you?”

Agape love is a very egalitarian way of loving, for we are not supposed to find some people more lovable and worthy than others. For example, in our Judeo-Christian culture, it seems perfectly acceptable to find Muslims unlovable.

In practicing Agape, we come to realize that the external differences are inconsequential. All paths lead to God, and we come to love all human beings regardless of race, color, or creed.

Throughout this long and agonizing week, we witnessed agape love in action, as people willingly rushed through the streets of Boston, helping victims of the bombings, giving little thought to the reality that they might well become victims themselves. Our law enforcement officers acted bravely, without thought of their own safety, in efforts to protect others. These are great acts of agape love, that we must give thanks for.

Agape love asks that we love all humanity, and this implies that we must love our enemies as well. This is never easy, and in many cases, never possible. Yet, agape love is patient, so patient that it waits to win over our opponents, and it helps us to be tolerant, kind, nonjudgmental, merciful, and forgiving in the meantime.

Let us all ask ourselves, “What act of agape love can I do today in the name of the Boston maimed, dead, and dying?”

Cindi Sansone-Braff is the author of the spiritual self-help book, Grant Me a Higher Love: How to Go from the Relationship from Hell to One that’s heaven Sent By Scaling The Ladder of Love. Visit her web site at:www.grantmeahigherlove.com.