Love and its meaning

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A good start from the online Webster (websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/love):🙂
Love
Noun
1. A strong positive emotion of regard and affection; “his love for his work”; “children need a lot of love”.
2. Any object of warm affection or devotion; “the theater was her first love” or “he has a passion for cock fighting”.
3. A beloved person; used as terms of endearment.
4. A deep feeling of sexual desire and attraction; “their love left them indifferent to their surroundings”; “she was his first love”.
5. A score of zero in tennis or squash; “it was 40 love”.
6. Sexual activities (often including sexual intercourse) between two people; “his lovemaking disgusted her”; “he hadn’t had any love in months”; “he has a very complicated love life”.
Verb
  1. Have a great affection or liking for; “I love French food”; “She loves her boss and works hard for him”.
  2. Get pleasure from; “I love cooking”.
  3. Be enamored or in love with; “She loves her husband deeply”.
  4. Have sexual intercourse with; “This student sleeps with everyone in her dorm”; “Adam knew Eve” (know is archaic); “Were you ever intimate with this man?”.
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Some languages, such as ancient Greek, are better than English at distinguishing between the different senses in which the word love is used. For example, ancient Greek has the words philia, eros, agape, and storge, meaning love between friends, romantic/sexual love, unconditional (possibly sacrificial, unreciprocated) love, and affection/familial love respectively. However, with Greek as with many other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words totally, and so we can find examples of agape being used with much the same meaning as eros. At the same time the ancient Greek text of the Bible has examples of the werb agapo being used with the same meaning as phileo.
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So, let’s take two sentences: “God loves us”, and “We should love God”. What is the meaning of “love” in these two sentences? I think it is an important question, since there are many instances when the necessity of “love” is held of supreme importance. Many times it is argued that love must be “freely” given, otherwise it is meaningless. Since the English language is “poor” in distinguishing the different kinds of “love”, there are many misunderstandings. Let’s clarify the issue.
 
Also
[St.] Thomas felt that it was better to love God than to know God, but in this world, seeking truth and believing in it, will lead to love. Both functions are vital and necessary and God will guide us.
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And a third post in rapid fire

God loves us with agape. The definition of agape from wiki states
“the love that consumes,” i.e., the highest and purest form of love, one that surpasses all other types of affection.
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Our priest on sunday gave a homily on agape. He said that agape is a kind of love that is all encompassing, all devoting, and sacrificial. It requires nothing in return. see 1cor 13:4 and following. If God is love, then that can be said to refer directly to God and how He loves us, despite our faults, sins, and continual transgressions against him. It should also reflect how we are to love God: with all our soul, with all our heart, and with all our mind (our will).

To get a better understanding of how God loves us and how we are called to love God, check a good concordance, read the writings of Augustine and Aquinas, and read the encyclicals of Pope Benedict XVI.

With love,

FSC
 
So, let’s summarize. God’s love is akin to caring (caritas - caring) about us. It is not an emotion per se (after all how could an emotion be present in a non-physical being?). It is a concern about our fate. It is a commitment to act on our behalf. Would you agree with that summary?

Now, how about the reverse? We cannot act on God’s behalf, since God lacks nothing. Would it be an emotion?
 
R_Daneel said:
So, let’s summarize. God’s love is akin to caring (caritas - caring) about us. It is not an emotion per se (after all how could an emotion be present in a non-physical being?). It is a concern about our fate. It is a commitment to act on our behalf. Would you agree with that summary?

Now, how about the reverse? We cannot act on God’s behalf, since God lacks nothing. Would it be an emotion?
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Well, caritas does not mean caring, except in the loosest translation (English is such an awful language). But you are on the right track. The first step, so-to-speak. You should really check out those links I gave you above.

The reverse part… No, we cannot act on behalf of God, and God lacks nothing. But God desires for us to love Him and for us to have joy. Love of God leads to a truly joy-filled life, so by coming to love God, we CAN perform His will.

FSC
 
R_Daneel said:
So, let’s summarize. God’s love is akin to caring (caritas - caring) about us. It is not an emotion per se (after all how could an emotion be present in a non-physical being?). It is a concern about our fate. It is a commitment to act on our behalf. Would you agree with that summary?

Now, how about the reverse? We cannot act on God’s behalf, since God lacks nothing. Would it be an emotion?
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R Daneel

But who is to speak for God’s Love, other than “God is Love”, unless one is a recipient of God’s Love? Then one can proclaim that God has Loved him. Then one Knows Love for one has experienced that God Loves him. Therefore as like unto King David, who expressed his experience of God’s Love for him. Therefore the true definition of Love. Since God is Love and no one can define God, only experience the revelation of God, then one can only tell what he has experienced of God. The Maker defines the made, the made does not define it’s Maker.
 
FidesSpesCarita said:
Well, caritas does not mean caring, except in the loosest translation (English is such an awful language). But you are on the right track. The first step, so-to-speak. You should really check out those links I gave you above.

The reverse part… No, we cannot act on behalf of God, and God lacks nothing. But God desires for us to love Him and for us to have joy. Love of God leads to a truly joy-filled life, so by coming to love God, we CAN perform His will.

FSC
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In other words, we *can *act on God’s behalf after all…
 
I’ve been reading Dietrich von Hildebrand’s “The Nature of Love” (highly recommended to anyone interested in the topic) in which he approaches “love” as a value-response. We love someone because we recognize the individual’s inherent value and their worthiness to be loved. This value, I would say, is due to our being created in God’s image. Yes, we can say we love our pet, but it is in no way comparable to the love between a husband and wife. We love our spouse more than other people because we have a deeper understanding of the true value of the person. What challenges our society is identifying love as simply emotions or pleasures rather than seeing it as understanding the true, good, valuable nature of the other. Also, with the denial of God, our society tells us we have no inherent value, thus people do not like love with the inherent dignity of the other. We love because the other is worth loving. With this forgetting of self, we become willing to sacrifice our own identity (in marriage, the two become one), even up to our own life (as exemplified by Jesus) for the sake of the other. Love does not exist without a willingness to sacrifice.

Considering our value lies in our being made in the image of God, our love for one another can only be a small indication for the love due to God. Another interesting point is that love is not contingent of equality. God loves us because we are valuable, although His value is unmistakably greater than we can ever be. It explains why throughout history, He created covenants with His people rather than contracts. No matter what we do, we are called to realize that we can never come close to the good God does for us, thus the unequal nature of our relationship. Yet, He recognizes our value with which He made us, and we are called to recognize His glorious value as well.

Interesting also, this value-response also explains devotion to Mary considering God created her uniquely valuable. It is not that we love Mary simply because she made the right choices (not to negate the effect of her use of free will on the world), but we hold her in such esteem because God deemed her in her very creation to be honorable. Our treatment of her is, in reality, a value-response to God’s uniquely blessed creation.
 
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