83 lines
4.9 KiB
HTML
83 lines
4.9 KiB
HTML
<p>I don't normally like making pop culture references, but with this
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topic I find it too tempting. Ironically, however, the famous song by
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Haddaway "What is Love?" doesn't actually answer the question, but is
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simply a very catchy song - no surprise there.</p>
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<p>Love is something that we talk about a great deal today. It's a word
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especially present in social movements which try to promote tolerance
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& acceptance of certain behaviours or persons. And indeed, as
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Christians we are called to love the Lord our God, and to love our
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neighbors as ourselves.<sup><a href="#r1" >[1]</a></sup> But what does
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it truly mean to love somebody?</p>
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<p>Perhaps the biggest mistake is to confuse the objective act of Love
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with subjective taste. This is not surprising since generally we find it
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difficult to put our finger on it, having no formation on the matter. As
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a consequence, we believe that Love is simply a more potent act of
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<i>liking</i> something. The confusion is only exaggerated when we say
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how we <i>love</i> a given food, when truly what we mean to say is that
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we like it. We're taught since we're children this erroneous scale of:
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hate, dislike, like, love - although hardly ever do we hear people use
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the word "dislike" anymore, which considering the true meaning of Love
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(and therefore Hate), I hope that my dear reader will learn to
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appreciate the word "dislike" after this. It is perfectly possible to
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dislike a person, and still love them. In fact, with regards to people,
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we often go through phases of liking and disliking the very same person.
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Yet, at all moments we can still love them. This is precisely because
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liking and loving a person are not the same or even related. Love,
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properly speaking, is a desire for Good (for oneself or another).</p>
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<p>With this definition of what Love is, we are able to truly comprehend
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what it means to love the Lord our God, and (especially) to love our
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neighbors as ourselves. We must love the Lord our God because He simply
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is Good. We must desire Him because He is Goodness itself. What's more,
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all goodness we may find in this world is nothing more than a pale
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reflection of God's perfect Goodness. Therefore, we must love God,
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perfect Goodness, above absolutely all earthly goodness which is simply
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a pale reflection of Him, loving earthly goodness as what it is: an
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imitation of Him. In other words, loving God is the same as saying we
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desire Goodness in its most complete and perfect form, which we can only
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achieve when we are in full communion with Him in the Celestial
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Kingdom.</p>
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<p>Now, using this same concept we can discover what it means to love
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our fellow Man: to desire Good for them. If I desire Evil upon someone,
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I don't love them, I hate them! As such, it is possible to dislike
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someone but still love them, just as it is possible to like someone but
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hate them. Both of these sound rather contradictory, but they are more
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common than you may think. For the former, consider all those people
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that you may personally (and therefore subjectively) dislike in your
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life. Do you wish Evil upon them? Do you desire for them to be harmed?
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Well, perhaps for some you do, and you could properly say that you
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<i>hate</i> those people, but my guess is for the vast majority of the
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people you dislike you don't wish these things upon them. In fact, there
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may be some who you truly love despite disliking them, and wish the best
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for despite how you feel about them subjectively.</p>
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<p>The latter of the two, liking and hating a person, is perhaps the one
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that seems the most contradictory, and yet it is (in my opinion) the
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most common. This would be subjectively finding a person enjoyable,
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while at the same time desiring or preferring Evil for them. Of course,
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this hardly ever takes the form of truly wanting to actively inflict
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harm on this person, but rather its most common and insidious form is in
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that of omission, especially omission of correction. That is to say,
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when we value our personal convenience and our amicability with the
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person over their own (or our own) good - i.e. effeminacy. This
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mentality of hatred runs rampant in our current era, and irony of
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ironies it is often referred to as <i>love</i>. That sin of omission
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which is the toleration of Evil, which constitutes an act of hatred
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against our fellow Man, is called <i>love</i>. In reality, this is
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nothing more than egoism.</p>
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<p>As such, we can conclude that toleration of Evil is not an act of
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Love or Charity, as some would have you believe, but all the opposite.
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Toleration of Evil is an act of Hatred and an offense against Charity,
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and therefore an offense against the Almighty God. You are not doing
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good by your fellow Man by permitting them to persist in their error,
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you are condemning both them and yourself, for <i>molles regnum Dei
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non possidebunt</i>.<sup><a href="#r2" >[2]</a></sup></p>
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<label id="r1" >[1]</label> Gospel of Matthew 22:37-40<br />
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<label id="r2" >[2]</label> First Letter to the Corinthians 6:9-10
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(Vulgate)
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