Archive for April, 2006

Love’s Modernity

Friday, April 14th, 2006

Lately I’ve heard a number of people say that love is a choice. I think there is an error in this idea. Its easy to minimize what love is and say its merely a choice. Its so much more than that. Yes, its a choice. But there’s a power in love that is beyond most people’s apparent comprehension. Love is a very strong force in the universe. If we look at the Passion of Christ, as is appropriate for today, we see that love manifested itself for the salvific victory of mankind. If it weren’t for Christ’s ability to love us, not just to choose suffering, we would not have a mediator between God and man. We would still be in the same lot that our ancestors once were.

Love’s power is strong. For example, love gives us the ability to bond with the beloved and, in some, the manifestation results in a beautiful gift of foresight, wisdom, and strength. Personally I’ve experienced a unique gift of telepathy, if you will, with the people I’ve loved. Most have exhibited a similar gift. It seems people overlook this, or don’t see it in their lives (or minimize it as a coincidence). Minimizing love to a choice also makes it easy to say that love is selectable. It is not. We are called, as Christians (assuming you are one), to love one another as I have loved you. This is HUGE. Can you comprehend Christ’s love for us? Then you know what we are called to. Through Christ’s manifestation of love, we are able to not only comprehend His love for us, but also have been commanded to bring this same sacrificial, salvific love to others. Not just by spreading the gospel to those who don’t know Christ, but also in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting prisoners, comforting the sick, and humbly serving others. This means loving others MORE than we love ourselves. For selfish pride blinds our ability to love.

Eros love, the ‘choice,’ is much more than that. If we remove the feeling from our lives we have no life at all. Love brings about the transformation of the heart. To understand that each and every person, no matter how good or bad, is Christ allows us to open our hearts to every person we encounter in our lives. This has a profound impact on our daily lives. If we all lived as we ought, we would very well understand the paradox of love. But many do not. They simply get caught up in currents of modern life and don’t take the time to open themselves to the Holy Spirit and bring that love to others. Its sad. There’s so much disunity I’m seeing in the world right now. This disunity is not good. Whether its the huge angst over the illegal immigration in the United States, or the French youth protestation against the laws that govern employment, disunity is all around us. This is just another trick of the evil one to divide us and destroy our unity. Love is unity. Its unity of mind, unity of heart, unity of soul.

Unity in our age is dying. Is it because pride has blinded us and divided us into our ‘individuality’ that makes us all so darn special? Am I different simply because its the thing to be, not because I am really different? What’s wrong with being united? I prefer to be just like everyone else. In fact, everyone does. The problem comes in when everyone else’s standards are so sub-par that one must rise above the foolishness that exists. The world is dying, and so are we. One day you will die. It doesn’t matter what you do on earth, from a worldy perspective. You will die. Your deeds will be forgotten by men. But not by God. God will look at your deeds, and, if you’ve lead a good life, Christ will intercede before God’s judgement on your soul. This means that you need to lead a good life. It doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, but you must try to love others as Christ has loved us. If we were all so loving as to give our lives over to everyone we met, the world would be a better place. Perhaps one day we will reach this level.