PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE # 13: COMMANDMENT TO LOVE GOD AND LOVE OF NEIGHBOR: AN EXPRESSION OF FAITH
What is love?
Pope Benedict XVI as quoted by Henry Bocala in his book, Mending A Broken Society, said, "Today, the word 'love' is so spoiled, worn out, and abused that one almost fears to pronounce it. And yet is is fundamental word. We cannot simply abandon it, but we must take it up again, purify it, and bring it to its original splendor so that it can illumine our life and guide it on the right path for it is because the essence of love is devalued in the modern world. Divorce, annulment reproductive health bill and so forth are concrete examples that love is given less importance.It is a manifestation that the authentic value and meaning of love is no longer sensed in human perspective and the absurd is that, love has become synonymous with sex. So, love must be restored to its true place in life and give it back in true nature.
To define what love is. Love accordingly, is the tendency of a subject to join an object that is perceived as a good. The subject is of spiritual nature. Therefore, we can perceive the true value of the objects, not only for ourselves, but also in our selves. For a person, the most lovable object is the other person, because it constitutes the greatest value we can perceive by our senses. God, known by the human intelligence, is the supreme value we can conceive and He can awake the fullness of human love. Human love should be: to love the things for persons, persons in themselves and for God, and God for Himself.
photo credit by @sorenkierkegaard
HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN IT'S LOVE?
We can never judge the value of a relationship by the intensity of the feelings, because these will always come and go. Feeling in love is exciting, but emotions should never by confused with love. For example, a young man might have genuine feelings for a girl, but this does not grantee that a he loves her. The real measure of love doing what's best for the beloved. Sure, this is demanding. That's why true love is so rare, and that's what makes it so beautiful and worth it in which we can really surely found through knowing who God is. Then, in what way can man love.
photo credit @sorenkierkegaard
LOVES AS A COMMANDMENT
God created us because of the love and this love is manifested in God's faithfulness to us. This is the underlying story behind every book in the bible. God offered the ultimate possibility for the human being to know in all its fullness the seminal plan of love, which began with creation. Because creation is the work of God and is reflection of him, it is possible to experience him in it. as husband is able to see the reflection of his wife in the beauty of their children. In the bible, the Lord's command is not to give but to love. For the one who does not love has no reason for keeping the commandments. The commandments thus represent the basic condition for love of neighbor, at the same time they are the proof of that love. But this certainly does not mean that Christ wishes to put the love of neighbor higher than, or even to set it apart from, the love of God. This is evident from his conversation with the teacher of the law, who asked him a question very much like the one asked by the young man. Jesus refers him tot he two commandments, on which depend all the law and the Prophets,. are profoundly connected and mutually related.
For both the Old and the New Testament explicitly affirm that without love of neighbor, made concrete in keeping the commandments, genuine love for God is not possible. Saint John makes the point with extraordinary forcefulness. If anyone says, "i love God"' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And it is clearly stated also that. Those who do not love have not known God, for God is love. St. John affirms in his first letter: If you have the Son of God you have total truth, you are on the way to authentic love and you are in communion with God himself.
ST. AUGUSTINE'S LOVE OF GOD
There are two questions posed by Augustine in regard to gaining "knowledge of the soul" that tested his faith in knowing God. How are we to pursue God whom we do not see and how are to see God? Augustine answers his questions with the truism that God is seen not with the eyes but with the mind and, that in our present condition, our mind are enveloped in a dark cloud of folly, unfit and unable to see. Augustine maintains that in directing our love towards God we must rely on the teaching of authority not on our own darkened reason. The authority Augustine refers to is found in Christ's commandments that we are "to love God with all our heart,all our soul, and all our mind.
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source: Dr. A. Peter: 60 PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESS: The Bombay Saint Paul Society, 2014.
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What a brilliant post Mr. philosopher. You are such a great man.
Nice post
My heart is restless untill it rests on God
Upvoted
Really nice sir @sorenkierkegaard.... full of information.....
Thanks for posting this, love is worth fighting for.