Love, Part Three

Some Amazing Thinkers and Me

C.S. Lewis wrote about The Four Loves.

They are: eros or romantic love; storge or affection such as family members may exhibit for each other; philia, or a strong friendship bond; and agape, or unconditional love, as God exemplifies and would have us apply toward others.

As Lewis points out, all the loves except agape can readily be abused, poisoned by the desire for self-aggrandizement. What appears to be one of those loves may actually be no more than narcissism in disguise. We may pick our friends for how they can serve us and our lovers for the lust or greed they can satisfy. Love for our parents or kids might depend upon what their accomplishments and status do for our image.

William Blake’s “The Clod and the Pebble” exposes the authentic and the counterfeit.

“Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell’s despair.”|
So sung a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle’s feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:
“Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another’s loss of ease,
And builds a hell in heaven’s despite.”

In First Corinthians, St. Paul asserts that: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

Simply, whatever I do without love is meaningless. I could sacrifice in order to bring about the salvation of the whole world, but the action won’t draw me any closer to God. Because God doesn't command us to act, he commands us to love.

I believe everyone who feels drawn toward God or goodness -- wise man Soren Kierkegaard refers to God as the Good -- should recognize that part of their job is to create beauty. To approach our lives as art and do whatever we can to make them beautiful. Robert Pirsig, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, suggests that we do this by pursuing Quality, which can be considered a synonym for love.

Poet John Keats famously claimed "Beauty is truth, truth Beauty -- That is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know." I certainly agree but will add that besides truth, another component of beauty is love.

I believe it was St. Augustine who first advised: "Love, and do what you will." I will advise that if you follow that precept, make sure to practice the right sort of love.

Suppose we get blessed with the opportunity to see an exhibit of Van Gogh originals, or to hear fine musicians play “Ode to Joy”. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we will notice that the creator of the painting or symphony has applied something more than great skill, that the artist’s love has entered into the creation and remains there as long as the work exists.

When I read Dostoyevski or Dickenson, Austen, Dickens or O'Connor, I often glimpse through the words the love that inspired the author to write those particular words. I found an abundance of love in the Harry Potter novels.

If we hope to make art, we had best apply ourselves to the acquisition and practice of love.

A was blessed with a remarkable friend, Sylvia Curtis, the mother of Eric Curtis, whom you could meet in Reading Brother Lawrence. One day I as I entered Sylvia’s apartment, she met me with a scowl and demanded, “What’s the purpose of life?”

I said, “Uh . . .”

She said, “To know love and to serve God.”

Later she admitted that definition came from a Catholic priest in an orphanage where she had done time.

Please note that “to know love” comes first.

I mean, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."1 John 4:8

So, "Since love is lord of Heaven and Earth, how can I keep from singing?"

Wishing you real love,

Ken