Mardi Gras theme sounds a bit like the gospels

The words of a famous Mardi Gras song go like this:

“If ever I cease to love,

If ever I cease to love,

May the moon be turned to green cream cheese,

If ever I cease to love.”

That could be the theme of the gospels. Maybe not the part about the moon turning into green cream cheese, but the part that says we should never cease to love.

The Word of God is all about love and the foolish things that love compels us to do. One foolish thing that Jesus tells us is to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for our persecutors and give without expectation of return. We are also supposed to avoid judging and to forgive without hesitation.

By the judgment of the world, loving our enemies is foolish. For Jesus, it was the heart of his Gospel.

Jesus tells us that we can only be considered children of the Most High God if we love our enemies. God “is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, he lets his rain fall and his sun shine on the just and the unjust.” Christians have no enemies. We are constantly loving our enemies in a way that transforms them into our friends.

At least, that is what we are supposed to do. More importantly, that is what Jesus expects us to do.

Jesus wants to reverse the cycle of hate. His point: We get back what we give. What goes around, comes around – back to us.

To counteract hate, we need to be more loving and generous instead of more hateful. The next time the temptation to judge someone or withhold forgiveness comes up, remember that in some way all of us need some kindhearted judgments and some genuine forgiveness. If we pour out goodness in the face of evil, then good will come back to us in abundance.

G.K. Chesterton once said, “Christianity has not failed; it has never been tried.” Maybe it is time to try to follow Jesus’ way. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it like this, “Either we learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we will die together as fools.”

Mardi Gras is a time for us to experiment with being Christian fools. Mardi Gras invites us to let go of our inhibitions and let down our guard. When I say let go of our inhibitions, I am not talking about what happens on balconies in the French Quarter on Bourbon Street or getting drunk and acting like a fool. I am talking about the way people extend the hand of friendship to everyone on Mardi Gras, across racial and economic divides, whether you are a local or a tourist, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican.

They call Mardi Gras the greatest free show on earth. It is a creative attempt to prove that the whole world could be friends if we allowed ourselves the freedom to play together. It is a time when we can get away with showing love to people whom we might ordinarily avoid.

That is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Love your enemies.”

We do foolish things on Mardi Gras to prepare ourselves to do foolish things during Lent, like fasting, praying more, and reaching out to the poor and needy. We all want to grow in the image of Christ, the fool who gave up his life out of love for his enemies.

That is why our theme song should be: “If ever I cease to love, If ever I cease to love, May the moon be turned to green cream cheese, If ever I cease to love.”