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Source for “We have much to be judged on when he comes, slums and battlefields and insane asylums..."?

I need to cite this quotation by Madeleine L'Engle for an essay, but I don't know what context it was originally used in, so I can't exactly cite it. Does anyone know it's origin? Here's the full quotation: “We have much to be judged on when he comes, slums and battlefields and insane asylums, but these are the symptoms of our illness and the result of our failures in love.”

Public Comments

1. ROMANS 13:8-10 American author, Madeleine L’Engle once wrote, “We have so much to be judged on when he comes, slums and battlefields and insane asylums, but these are the symptoms of our illness and the result of our failures in love.” In a similar vein of thought, Martin Luther King, Jr. noted, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” Aware that the failure to love others was at the heart of all human conflict, Paul challenged his readers to give the same consideration to the gospel’s call to love one another as they would give to any debt which they owed. In the verses preceding today’s reading, Paul had advised the believers in Rome to respect and obey those in authority; since all authority is derived from God, Christians should, in good conscience, be subject to their superiors. The apostle to the gentiles also advocated paying taxes, tolls, respect and honor to those to whom each of these is due (13:1-7). Having satisfied whatever debts he/she may owe as citizens of the world, Christians are further charged with the debt of mutual love. Earlier in his letter, Paul had reminded his readers of the agape or totally selfless and other-centered love which God has for humanity (5:5,8; 8:35, 37, 39; 9:13, 25); he also described the love which human beings should have for God (8:28). At this point in his moral exhortation, he began to treat of the love which human persons are to give to one another (see also 12:9, 14:15). The terms owe and debt may seem out of place when speaking of love but these words were carried over from the preceding section of Romans wherein Paul wrote of just, civil debts like taxes, obedience, etc. As Joseph Fitzmyer has explained, love cannot be owed since it is to be freely offered. “It is the open outward concern of one person for another that takes one out of oneself and does not depend on what the other has done or will do in return.” (Spiritual Exercises Based On Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Paulist Press, New York: 1995). When believers love one another with utter selflessness, then the law is fulfilled (vs. 8) Actually, if by law Paul was referencing the prescriptions ascribed to Moses, then the person who loves others with an agape love surpasses that law. However, if by law, Paul meant the great commandment which Jesus gave to his disciples, then those who love others are fulfilling their Christian mandate. Paul went on to say that all the commandments are summed up in the challenge, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (vs. 9). The term “summed up” appears in only one other passage of the Christian scriptures where it describes all of God’s creative, redemptive and salvific activities as being summed up in the person and mission of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10). Just as all of God’s provident care for humankind and the created universe finds its meaning and completeness in Christ, so does every human interaction find its meaning and completeness in mutual love freely and boundlessly bestowed. It is this quality of love which transforms enemies into friends and heals the failures which create wars, slums and battlefields. It is this quality of love which heroically reaches out to rescue others in danger of physical harm and spiritual death.