People and love

[billcu1]

People are always talking about love. but most do not know what it is. Can people love? In themselves I mean at this time. Love always gives and never asks for anything back. That doesn’t sound like people. But we are given a gift of love. The spiritual gifts of faith hope and charity. They can flee with mortal sin. Is the spiritual gift of love the only love people can know? The mothers in the wild go and get food for their little ones before they eat. And they themselves expect and get nothing back. That’s the closest to love I’ve ever seen.

 

[Ontheway]

People are always talking about love. but most do not know what it is. Can people love? In themselves I mean at this time. Love always gives and never asks for anything back. That doesn’t sound like people. But we are given a gift of love. The spiritual gifts of faith hope and charity. They can flee with mortal sin. Is the spiritual gift of love the only love people can know? The mothers in the wild go and get food for their little ones before they eat. And they themselves expect and get nothing back. That’s the closest to love I’ve ever seen.

Love takes many forms, one of which is charity. If you have the patience to listen to a friend who shares their troubles with you, this is love. If you share what you have with someone who has not, that’s love.
For example, my wife is having a very difficult time at work, primarily because of her boss. When the boss got cancer, my wife brought her flowers. Not because she was the boss, but because my wife saw in this person a suffering human being.

 

[billcu1]

Love takes many forms, one of which is charity. If you have the patience to listen to a friend who shares their troubles with you, this is love. If you share what you have with someone who has not, that’s love.
For example, my wife is having a very difficult time at work, primarily because of her boss. When the boss got cancer, my wife brought her flowers. Not because she was the boss, but because my wife saw in this person a suffering human being.

Yes I guess I see what you mean. It’s a love we’re capable of I guess.

 

[Rosebud77]

Love is action not emotion.

 

[setarcos]

Love is action not emotion.

I believe you have it wrong. Love is a state of being, given by Gods grace which fulfills our inherent capacity to receive it which God created in our nature.
I can certainly go through the exact same actions the above poster’s wife did but with ulterior motives other than the Love (in any form) of my boss.
You will notice all those “actions” taken - sharing, listening, etc. - are qualified actions by the disposition of the actor prior to action. Love drives the will to act in light of its disposition within the person but willingly acting does not create the disposition of Love within the person. Otherwise the father of lies himself would be capable of Loving and deceiving at the same time. No amount of action can force your soul into the disposition of loving through your doing if by what your doing your not already in the disposition of being loving.

 

[DanielStDominic]

I can certainly go through the exact same actions the above poster’s wife did but with ulterior motives other than the Love (in any form) of my boss.

This is what Catholic thought has termed a love rooted in concupiscence. It is opposed to love that is rooted in benevolence, or agape. And both of those forms of love are different from Charity, which is an infused virtue that God gives me so that I can love Him above all things, and love all men for His sake.

 

[Rosebud77]

I believe you have it wrong. Love is a state of being, given by Gods grace which fulfills our inherent capacity to receive it which God created in our nature.
I can certainly go through the exact same actions the above poster’s wife did but with ulterior motives other than the Love (in any form) of my boss.
You will notice all those “actions” taken - sharing, listening, etc. - are qualified actions by the disposition of the actor prior to action. Love drives the will to act in light of its disposition within the person but willingly acting does not create the disposition of Love within the person. Otherwise the father of lies himself would be capable of Loving and deceiving at the same time. No amount of action can force your soul into the disposition of loving through your doing if by what your doing your not already in the disposition of being loving.

You have misunderstood my words. Please think again!!!It is so very simple you see. Love is not an emotion floating around the ether. And yes an action can be love by itself. You complicate things.

 

[setarcos]

You have misunderstood my words. Please think again!!!It is so very simple you see. Love is not an emotion floating around the ether. And yes an action can be love by itself. You complicate things.

My, my. Have I touched a nerve? I’m sorry if I misunderstood your five words. I almost hate to reply to these thirty six. I’m almost certainly misunderstanding them as well.
Love is as simple as God chose to make it. I agree, men tend to make the simple overly complicated and I’m probably one of them. God created within us the capacity to love. The love we have fills this capacity through Gods grace. Ask yourself…where do your emotions go when your not feeling them? Hate, happiness, jealousy, Love…where are they when their not being felt? Does man create them ex nihilo, like a God, when needed? You cannot deny the physical connection between emotion, intellect, will, and brain and any theory of emotion must take this into account. Our physicality is the capacity God created in us to receive his Grace in recognition. This is why any injury to our physicality can effect our ability to express this capacity. We were created as physical creatures and it was called GOOD by God. How is it that an action can be Love if the disposition of the soul to be loving does not precede the action? As scripture says God reads the hearts of men for a reason, not just their actions.

 

[setarcos]

This is what Catholic thought has termed a love rooted in concupiscence. It is opposed to love that is rooted in benevolence, or agape. And both of those forms of love are different from Charity, which is an infused virtue that God gives me so that I can love Him above all things, and love all men for His sake.

That is my point. The action far from being loving may be in opposition to Love though by definition it may seemingly fulfill its qualities. Lets not forget that by definition man was created with concupiscence and barring its perversion it is necessary to the creation of a family through husband and wife. That being said my whole point is that action does not indicate agape simply by virtue of the action being capable of being attributable to what one who is in the disposition of Love (agape) would do. The action may be rooted in a perverse reasoning only known to the actor and God.

 

[Jennifoo]

People are always talking about love. but most do not know what it is. Can people love? In themselves I mean at this time. Love always gives and never asks for anything back. That doesn’t sound like people. But we are given a gift of love. The spiritual gifts of faith hope and charity. They can flee with mortal sin. Is the spiritual gift of love the only love people can know? The mothers in the wild go and get food for their little ones before they eat. And they themselves expect and get nothing back. That’s the closest to love I’ve ever seen.

If love wasn’t possible, God wouldn’t demand if of us. He said that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. God gives us the grace to do whatever He commands of us.