Identify if you can what is Love?

Most people will say love is identified by respect for others, obedience towards those who have charge over us, or still how well we treat anyone who professes to be good friends. These are results of love but the answer of identifying the deep aspect of love must begin where this theological virtue comes from; God!

We must identify who God is before possibly finding an explanation as to what issues forth from his divinity. St. John teaches through these words; “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love; not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.” “(1 Jn. 4: 7 12).

“God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. (1 Jn. 4: 16).

“In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.”

(Gn. 1:1-2). This love that is God has begun in creation his love for us.

Many people will try to identify love or lack of it by the way others interfere with their well being, the insidious manner they are mistreated by those who have promised to love and treat them. However, it becomes so easy to bring someone down by using these very tactics to bring revenge on someone you promised to love and the cracks of the surface you rely upon to stand firm seem to open up swallowing your beliefs in what this love appeared to be and is no more.

When the signs of mistrust, contrived thoughts of anger, or a race to the courts to get even with anyone who has betrayed you remember that these are not love or detraction from it. Love never was a solid adherence when the temptation to turn what was supposed to be a life long relationship turns sour and collapses before your very eyes.

Holding on to love begins with God who is love and that entity must return back to the giver. “Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over. Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends. The body is put back in the same ground it came from. The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it. “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth (Eccl 12: 6 - 7).

Ralph B. Hathaway, August 20, 2022