I don't normally like making pop culture references, but with this +topic I find it too tempting. Ironically, however, the famous song by +Haddaway "What is Love?" doesn't actually answer the question, but is +simply a very catchy song - no surprise there.
+ +Love is something that we talk about a great deal today. It's a word +especially present in social movements which try to promote tolerance +& acceptance of certain behaviours or persons. And indeed, as +Christians we are called to love the Lord our God, and to love our +neighbors as ourselves.[1] But what does +it truly mean to love somebody?
+ +Perhaps the biggest mistake is to confuse the objective act of Love +with subjective taste. This is not surprising since generally we find it +difficult to put our finger on it, having no formation on the matter. As +a consequence, we believe that Love is simply a more potent act of +liking something. The confusion is only exaggerated when we say +how we love a given food, when truly what we mean to say is that +we like it. We're taught since we're children this erroneous scale of: +hate, dislike, like, love - although hardly ever do we hear people use +the word "dislike" anymore, which considering the true meaning of Love +(and therefore Hate), I hope that my dear reader will learn to +appreciate the word "dislike" after this. It is perfectly possible to +dislike a person, and still love them. In fact, with regards to people, +we often go through phases of liking and disliking the very same person. +Yet, at all moments we can still love them. This is precisely because +liking and loving a person are not the same or even related. Love, +properly speaking, is a desire for Good (for oneself or another).
+ +With this definition of what Love is, we are able to truly comprehend +what it means to love the Lord our God, and (especially) to love our +neighbors as ourselves. We must love the Lord our God because He simply +is Good. We must desire Him because He is Goodness itself. What's more, +all goodness we may find in this world is nothing more than a pale +reflection of God's perfect Goodness. Therefore, we must love God, +perfect Goodness, above absolutely all earthly goodness which is simply +a pale reflection of Him, loving earthly goodness as what it is: an +imitation of Him. In other words, loving God is the same as saying we +desire Goodness in its most complete and perfect form, which we can only +achieve when we are in full communion with Him in the Celestial +Kingdom.
+ +Now, using this same concept we can discover what it means to love +our fellow Man: to desire Good for them. If I desire Evil upon someone, +I don't love them, I hate them! As such, it is possible to dislike +someone but still love them, just as it is possible to like someone but +hate them. Both of these sound rather contradictory, but they are more +common than you may think. For the former, consider all those people +that you may personally (and therefore subjectively) dislike in your +life. Do you wish Evil upon them? Do you desire for them to be harmed? +Well, perhaps for some you do, and you could properly say that you +hate those people, but my guess is for the vast majority of the +people you dislike you don't wish these things upon them. In fact, there +may be some who you truly love despite disliking them, and wish the best +for despite how you feel about them subjectively.
+ +The latter of the two, liking and hating a person, is perhaps the one +that seems the most contradictory, and yet it is (in my opinion) the +most common. This would be subjectively finding a person enjoyable, +while at the same time desiring or preferring Evil for them. Of course, +this hardly ever takes the form of truly wanting to actively inflict +harm on this person, but rather its most common and insidious form is in +that of omission, especially omission of correction. That is to say, +when we value our personal convenience and our amicability with the +person over their own (or our own) good - i.e. effeminacy. This +mentality of hatred runs rampant in our current era, and irony of +ironies it is often referred to as love. That sin of omission +which is the toleration of Evil, which constitutes an act of hatred +against our fellow Man, is called love. In reality, this is +nothing more than egoism.
+ +As such, we can conclude that toleration of Evil is not an act of +Love or Charity, as some would have you believe, but all the opposite. +Toleration of Evil is an act of Hatred and an offense against Charity, +and therefore an offense against the Almighty God. You are not doing +good by your fellow Man by permitting them to persist in their error, +you are condemning both them and yourself, for molles regnum Dei +non possidebunt.[2]
+ + Gospel of Matthew 22:37-40