Love Blog Series # 6.2.1: What's Love Got to Do with This?

"Hayyyyy... Love..."
But before we get mushy in this article... let's discuss the definition of love.
What is love anyway?

In the world today, there are many, many, many definitions pertaining to love. Most of them equate love as an intense surge of feelings or emotions. And many people would also say that it is irrational, does not have any reason, and simply a magical thing that people feel.

It may sometimes be connoted to love of country, romantic love, friendship, sexual love, love for thing, and even love for God. And many will say that these vast definitions of love are very unique to each other and are very different from each other. Many would say that these different kinds of love have different intensity of feelings also.

All in all, these boils down to one thing: Love is a feeling.

Pope Benedict, through his encyclical letter entitled: "Deus Caritas Est", wishes to address this very definition of love. Is it really a feeling, much like the Greek word, eros? Is love or true essence of it be ideal and almost impossible to grasp due to the many definitions and intensities to it? Is romantic love very different from the religious love or love for God? Can we be able to do the commandments?

What is really the definition of love?

To have a basic knowledge of it, we will have to use the sentence many of us will say in many different languages to express our love to the other:

"I love you"

Using basic English, this simple sentence represent two parts: A subject and a predicate.
The subject here is the word "I". The predicate here is the phrase "love you" which can be subdivided into two objects: A verb and a direct object. The direct object here is "you" and the verb word is "love".

By the very definition of verb as an action word, the word "love" can be connoted as an action.
We cannot express love if is not an action. And by the very definition of it... Love is an action, the doer of the action is "I" and the receiver of the action is "you".

By receiving the action means receiving the action word "love". And love cannot be received if it is not been given to the receiver.

So what is this love that is to be given? By the meaning of the title of the letter "Deus Caritas Est", it means: God is love. We are to give God as an action to the receiver. But how do we do that?

Looking at the first chapter of Genesis, we can see that we ourselves are made from the image and likeness of God. Thus, in action, we only not give our God... we ought to give ourselves.

Thus, the very essence of the true meaning of love. It is an act of self-giving... of self-sacrificing. This is agape used in the New Testament. Then, what are feelings then?

Feelings, the intense emotions that well up inside us, is a byproduct of that love. That is the pursuit defined by eros, supreme infinite happiness often equated to romantic love. Rather than a warped and destructive form of eros that is intoxicated and seeks to reach "divine happiness" for the purpose of feeling the pleasure of being "divine", true eros becomes pure and true when in pursuit of this kind of happiness we ought to give ourselves. Eros and Agape, although different, becomes one in the whole definition of love.

Love becomes one essence but in different manifestations. It is whole. It cannot be gauge into different intensities. It's either you give it whole, or you give an imperfect one. We cannot separate it into different things for if we separate it, we only get an impoverished form of it. And a "half-baked love" is not love at all.

People need love... We need to be loved... and the only thing that quenches that thirst is only through true and perfect love.

Thus, true and perfect love, again, is an action... an act... to give oneself to another... to sacrifice for one neighbor... to serve, give time and effort generously... and its byproduct will always be joy, peace, and love. The feelings that we get when we give generously.

For the more we give and share this love, the more we receive true and perfect love given and acted upon us by our generous God, who gave His Son Jesus, who died for us... just to ultimately define what true love is.



PS. Sorry for the late post, I have to read just part one of the Encyclical letter of the Pope just make this post more understandable and have more "meat" so to speak.

PS2. Watch out for the next topic in the series: Does God need my love?

PS3. Watch out for our next topic series after this: Being Complete