Some years ago I was very stressed so I made a trip to the temple to receive some peace. I unfortunately sat next to two sisters who I later learnt had a ‘get-together’ standing outing to the Temple. As I sat there waiting for the session to begin peace eluded me because the sisters next to me chatted incessantly. My stress escalated until I angrily and tersely told these unfortunate sisters to desist with their chatter. My outburst upset them so much that they left the endowment room and in tears complained to the Temple matron. I was called out of the room and reprimanded for which I apologised. I knew even back then that this hurt I had caused someone else would one day find me because I believe that you shouldn’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you. This theory of mine proved to be true. As I posted a spiritual message in a Ward Newsletter as part of my calling this year, it was misunderstood by one sister who very unkindly replied to my message telling me that people are in a lockdown and that my message was suicide worthy. As we conversed and I tried to make my message clearer she remained hostile and indignant. In the end I had to just tell her that she had broken my heart by her attack on me and that I hoped I would never hurt a sister in Zion like she had hurt me…..hmmmmm. I reflected on this incident and I realised that this sister had acted poorly towards me due to the stress she was under due to one of our severe Australian lockdowns. It was exactly what I had done in the temple some years prior. Is it possible to treat others lovingly even when under duress? Is it possible to treat others lovingly under ANY circumstances?
Consider the story of people called Anti-Nephi-Lehi. You cannot get greater duress than this.
As we know, when the Lamanites came upon them to slay them, these people of Ammon did not prepare for war, nor did they run away. They stayed put, buried their weapons and subjected themselves to slaughter. We tend to always reflect on the main reason they did this, that reason being a sign of their covenant with God (Alma 24:18) but that reason does not end there. So profound and deep did their conversion become that rather than ‘take away from a brother, they would give unto him’ (Alma 24:18). And not just another, but even the sinner who would hate them, revile them, and even kill them. But there is more….they also LOVED their brethren who sought to kill them (Alma 26:32).
The lesson of the massacre of Anti-Nephi-Lehies doesn’t stop there. The number of Lamanites who were converted and ‘saved’ was greater than one thousand and five of them who were slain (Alma 24:22,26). So the sacrifice of the ‘innocent’ brought about the salvation of the ‘sinful’. How is it possible that these people could kneel in front of their executors and willingly go to their deaths for the sake of the salvation of others? There is only one answer. The love that they possessed towards their brethren was not ordinary love but ‘the pure love of Christ’. This was a deeper love than loving your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 19:19). This was to love ‘as I have loved you’ (John 13:34), this was the love the way HE FEELS IT, not the way we do. This love sends you to the altar of sacrifice to lay down your life for another, as was the case of people of Ammon whose sacrifice mirrored the sacrifice of the Son of God. This love cannot be developed by us but can only be a gift to the true followers of Christ who prayerfully seek it (Moroni 7:47,48).
This Christmas may we contemplate the birth and the condescension of a God who lowered himself to the dust of this earth so He can bind us one to another and to the Father through His unfathomable sacrifice born out of the deepest recesses of His heart. And may we love one another as He has loved us……
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Art by Liz Lemon Swindle
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