Love Value
Imagine Jesus presenting a case for you before the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund committee.
The congressional act establishing the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund was an action unprecedented in American history. It committed the nation to compensate both the 2,973 families who lost a loved one and the 4,400 survivors who were physically injured.
The fund, however, was not designed to give all the families the same amount of money.
It’s no secret that the fund was intended to discourage lawsuits against the airlines. If that were to take place, congress imagined a national transportation emergency on their hands. So the law that established the fund placed a cap on the financial liability of the airlines. Beyond that, the fund took into consideration how a potential lawsuit might play out. If survivors took their case to court and won, cash awards could be decided individually based on the specifics of life and the earning power of the person who was injured or had died.
So the fund was set up both to be generous and also to acknowledge individuality, specifically, the economic loss caused by death or injury based on potential earning ability. This, of course, practically forced families to plead their cases before fund administrators. Which they did.
And Kenneth Feinberg heard them all. Mr. Feinberg, a skilled attorney known for negotiating difficult cases, was appointed to run the fund for its entire three year course (he worked more than full time without receiving any payment, considering his work as a contribution to the families of the victims).
“During the hearings,” Feinberg reports, “expressions of love seem to trump all other human emotions, including fear, grief, and anger at the crimes committed. These stories of love often helped me through the day, when hearing after hearing stretched late into the night.”
Fund administrators like Kenneth Feinberg discovered that talking about the life of their loved one was what determined that person’s worth more than any economic impact. Who the person was made more of a difference than what the person did. Unquantifiable virtues like kindness, humor, and generosity were explained in great detail. Some families even brought in photos, wedding videos, and scrapbooks. In the end, families didn’t seem to be motivated by greed, but by a desire to assert the value of their loved one. “This love could reinforce their resolve,” noticed Feinberg, “and provide them a compass for living. It could give them a reason for moving on.”
Imagine Jesus coming before the 9/11 compensation committee to present a case for us. It wouldn’t be much different. He’d not spend time on our impact in the world, our economic earning power, our ability to speak in public or drive a stick shift or speak three languages fluently. No. Jesus would talk about each of us based on our worth to him. How much he loves us.
“Look at this,” he’d say to Feinberg, “see these scars.” And Jesus would replay the details of whom he has made each of us to be with his sacrificial death that takes away our sins. Just think! He died for us! And he is our Shepherd. Our very own Shepherd. How much he must value us to spend time supervising our grazing through the schedule of another day! And he brought us with him into the tomb and then rose with us to a new life! New people, that’s who we are! And he promised we’d be with him forever even as he ascended visibly into heaven to be invisibly everywhere. And he sends the Holy Spirit to comfort and counsel us! As if God doesn’t have other things to do, but here he is, still in our lives!
That’s love. Strong love. Love that reinforces our resolve. Love that gives us a compass for guidance in living. Love that establishes our value.
That same love is for all people in God’s world. God created them all. Jesus died for them all. So we’ll love them too.
PRAYER: God of love, be ever near us, in our lives to help us respond to the needs of others. Renew our spirits that feel so overwhelmed and underutilized at times to rejoice in your love and see in our work not a polished trophy of brilliance but a loving effort of humble love. Help us find rest and peace in your resurrection promises, and prepare us for useful service to all. Amen.