Here are some lovely words about love from my very eloquent, and loving, son, Josiah:
Do we ever stop to think what we are doing
when we decide to love? Love (take it in any sense you like, you can have
your pick of the Greek) is an act of supreme hazard - some might call it a kind
of violence. There are, of course, differences in degree - the husband
loves his wife with stronger ardor than one friend loves another - but the
activity of the heart in both instances is of a piece. In some way, some
glorious, terrible way beyond our puny mortal comprehension, one heart is bound
to another. These very bonds which bring so much joy introduce the
possibility of pain, as the very capacity to feel brings with it the potential
for both pleasure and agony. The bonds themselves are tainted by the
filth of our hearts, as sin corrodes the psyche, clouding both judgment and
emotion. Yet the very fact that we are able to love at all is a miracle,
a grace we should have no reason to expect from the Creator we rebelled
against.
AND YET HE LOVED US FIRST.
Love itself is a kind of rebellion, an
inclination of the soul which openly defies the power of darkness and its
clamoring hatred. The prince of darkness may still corrupt our love into
a horror, a mere carnal desire or superficial attachment. Yet when we
love truly, with simple, honest devotion, we spite the enemy, moving - even if
only by a fraction - toward the nature which we were intended to have, toward a
vision of the Kingdom to come, toward the image of He who made it possible.
Love should not be an insipid, mewling little
thing which we dress in the palest, least offensive colors and stoop to pet
when it suits us. This is not love, but an abomination masquerading as
virtue in a world where virtue has no meaning.
Love is not harmless. Love is
dangerous. Yet it is worthwhile, only insofar as it flows from the One
who burns white-hot at the center of reality, Love Himself, the One who
sacrificed His Son, who hung on the cross in agony, having done no wrong, that
we might be truly loved.
Brothers and sisters, let's not proclaim
our love - for each other and for the world - with platitudinous whispers and
mutterings. Let's declare our intent to love with one voice, roaring to
the heavens. Love is our battle cry, and our commander, and our
prize. Let us take love as seriously as He did.
