It’s a Question of Love
What is and should be the priority of your life at every moment? It is the greatest of all laws which states that we should love the Lord, Our God, with our whole heart, our soul and our mind. Now the most common word used in America as a quiz show answered is “Love”. Yet in a mid western college a news caster showed all the dorm windows painted with these letters “LUV”. Unless our terms are clear love can be interpreted in a dozen ways in our modern society. So let us consider the words used by Jesus and how they indicate to us the pattern of love’s growth in us.
First issue, Our Lord uses the Greek word, agapao. This specialized word is contrasted with the Greek word, eros, which is understood as an attraction. Recall little Cupid with his arrows penetrating our hearts with a lustful type love. This attraction which is physical in nature can lead us astray and seek an act rather than the love of a person. This is not the word Jesus chose to apply to God. Nor did He choose the other Greek word, phileo, which is used for a higher degree of human love. In this context the soul of one person trusts the friend with all one’s deepest thoughts or aspirations. This love is often the motive for a marriage. Many have told me that “I married my best friend.” This is phileo but it is not the love which describes what God asks of us in this passage.
Agape love is divine, victimal and steadfast. As a victim, one lays down one’s life for the beloved. This is the highest expression of self-giving that a human being can offer. Hence the one who practices it is becoming more and more divine for one is imitating the Lord Himself. This love does not waver in the face of rebukes, mocking or criticism. Thus we can understand that we are called to love God with our whole heart.
The heart is the seat of our emotional life which must be controlled by the direction pointing straight to God to Whom we belong. Our emotions of fear, anger, sorrow, etc. are rooted in the heart and must be utilized to increase our love of God daily. Emotions give us a power beyond our physical nature. When the heart is stirred we can make greater progress in the expression of love.
Control is the property of the soul which is guided by reason which seeks and is aroused by Truth. We must save our souls. We do that by directing our thoughts and words to the expressions of Truth which we find in the Word of God, the examples of the saints and the teaching of the Fathers and the magisterium of all time. The soul operates under convictions and not because of an emotion. This is why the soul is so important in directing our hearts.
Finally, our minds have the capacity to make the judgments necessary to inform the soul of the convictions which Truth has taught us. The intellect has a great thirst for that which nourishes it: the truth. Reading and writing are exercises in sacrificial love if they are directed to their true goal: God’s Love.
As you can see the greatest commandment takes in the totality of our human nature and fulfills the great desire of man to love and to be loved. Ultimately there are nine stages of this divine love which we will deal with another time. We must turn our attention to Love’s inquiry. Our Lord Jesus Christ entered our humanity and accepted our human nature in what we call the hypostatic union. It means simply that our Lord possessed one personality (the second Person of the Blessed Trinity) but in union with the divine nature He received a human nature from our Lady.
Crucial point is this: Are we convinced of this great and awesome truth? If we are then the question of Jesus can be answered.
“Concerning the Son of Man, whose son is he?” The Pharisees answered that He was the son of David. In response Jesus asked: “If he is David’s son, then why does David in the Spirit, call him Lord.” Thus Scripture says: “The Lord said to ‘my’ Lord, sit at my right hand.” How then is David, his father. No one could answer Him. Studying the fathers of the church we come to this insight of St. John Chrysostom that no one can answer this question without virtue and wisdom. The virtue most appropriate for this quest is humility. Now the answer which our great Fathers of the Church propose and is accepted as doctrine.
Jesus in his human nature is the Son of David as indicated in the genealogy. His human nature relates to David as son. But Jesus in His Divine Nature is Son of God and hence is David’s Lord. In this the mystery of the hypostatic union is affirmed but only by those who understand the Love of God and practice it. The greatest example of one who knew and loved perfectly is the ever Virgin Mary. That is why we turn to her and the rosary to help us increase in Victimal or Sacrificial Love. All things within our nature cooperate to help us achieve the imitation of Christ and confirm our incorporation into the Mystical Body of our Lord, Jesus Christ. May God be praised for in Him all melds into unity.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt, S.D.B.
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