That Love Which God Preached

In Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the Prince Andrew Bolkonski was severely wounded in the 1812 battle of Borodino as the French invaded Russia and marched toward Moscow. He found himself, half-conscious, being cared for in a tent alongside other injured soldiers, and he discovered that the man next to him seemed familiar. This man was moaning as his leg was being amputated and then sobbed from the pain. “In the miserable, sobbing, enfeebled man whose leg had just been amputated, he recognized Anatole Kurágin. Men were supporting him in their arms and offering him a glass of water, but his trembling, swollen lips could not grasp its rim. Anatole was sobbing painfully. ‘Yes, it is he! Yes, that man is somehow closely and painfully connected with me,’ thought Prince Andrew, not yet clearly grasping what he saw before him.” Still not fully in possession of his own faculties, the prince finally remembered that this was the man who had caused him to lose his fiancé. Anatole had tried (unsuccessfully) to elope with Natasha while Andrew was engaged to be married to her, and it had of course ended their engagement. Andrew had at that point been full of hatred and anger towards Anatole, wanting to find him and kill him. The story continues, “And suddenly a new unexpected memory from that realm of pure and loving childhood presented itself to him. He remembered Natásha as he had seen her for the first time at the ball in 1810, with her slender neck and arms and with a frightened happy face ready for rapture, and love and tenderness for her, stronger and more vivid than ever, awoke in his soul. He now remembered the connection that existed between himself and this man who was dimly gazing at him through tears that filled his swollen eyes. He remembered everything, and ecstatic pity and love for that man overflowed his happy heart. Prince Andrew could no longer restrain himself and wept tender loving tears for his fellow men, for himself, and for his own and their errors. ‘Compassion, love of our brothers, for those who love us and for those who hate us, love of our enemies; yes, that love which God preached on earth and which Princess Mary taught me and I did not understand—that is what made me sorry to part with life, that is what remained for me had I lived. But now it is too late. I know it!’” He found what had eluded him before as he lay there suffering next to another suffering man: the kind of love that Jesus taught (which his sister Mary had always espoused), love even for one’s enemies. Suffering had brought compassion and a heart full of love.  

                The Prince Andrew Bolkonski did not die then, but ultimately was taken to Moscow and eventually reunited with Natasha who began to care for him as he sought in vain to recover. They were able to forget the past and were joined together in love once more, but eventually it became clear that he was not going to live. As he lay there pondering death, he thought,     “Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.” He soon died as Natasha and his sister wept over him. He had found what it meant to truly love as he suffered and died and returned back to God, the source of all love. What he found in his suffering and death is what we should seek with all our hearts while still living. As Mormon invited us, “But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure” (Moroni 7:47-48). In addition to these fervent prayers to find the gift of charity, it may take for us as well our own suffering to truly be filled with this love. Mormon had found love despite of, or perhaps because of, his lifelong suffering watching his people in their wickedness: “My heart has been filled with sorrow because of their wickedness, all my days; nevertheless, I know that I shall be lifted up at the last day” (Mormon 2:19). In spite of this environment of total wickedness, he was able to write to his son, “And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love” (Moroni 8:17). The Prince Andrew Bolkonski found that he was filled with this love as he wept for his suffering enemy and suffered through the pains of death. And it is that love—“that love which God preached on earth”—that we must never stop seeking for ourselves.