Love, a spark of God

Innumerable books have been written in all languages on the theme of 'love', and one can safely forecast that many more will still be written in future. The more one thinks or says about it, the more one still has to say. One could never say enough about it.

Love is the motor which makes all human life move and the highest value that gives it meaning. Everyone may have one's own ideas about love. But the most eloquent on this subject are those who experience it.

Many people, however, have a different concept of love. Some speak about 'love', but in reality deep down they mean something else. They say "I love you", but in reality they mean "I love myself". What such people actually love is the pleasure they get out of what they call 'love'. To use a modern word, we can say that there is nowadays a veritable 'inflation' of the word love.

If we reflect carefully on today's Gospel we can begin to learn what true love is. When one of the Scribes, who were the Scripture specialists of the time, asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment of the law, his answer was: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole mind, and with your whole strength." But soon after, as if his first answer were not complete, he added: "And the second is this: love your neighbour as yourself!"

Love of God and love of neighbour: the two sides of one and the same medal. Your love of God is either incomplete or not genuine if you do not love your neighbour. And, on the other hand, if you say you love your neighbour because of what you get from him, because of the pleasure he gives you, and not because he is the child of God and therefore your own brother or sister, then it is yourself whom you truly love and not Him.

Loving is giving rather than getting, because such was God's love for us. And giving means serving, sharing, helping, sacrificing one's self for the person in need. Unfortunately today love, and all that is connected with it, is so exploited and commercialised that it ends up losing any resemblance with what true love is.

For many people today love meals nothing but 'sex': making love means having sex, no matter with whom, even with a person you had never met before and will never meet again.

True, we have never seen God, and the knowledge we have about Him is only that which is reflected in creation and in Christ's work of redemption. By creating us and all else, God has given much to us. By becoming man and dying for us, Christ gave himself to us and established the Church with her sacraments to make his 'giving of himself to us' a lasting process leading to our eternal salvation.

Among all seven sacraments, matrimony is no doubt the one that reflects best God's love for us. It is in fact called the 'sacrament of love', an expression also used when we talk about the Eucharist.

Just as in Holy Communion, Jesus does not give us 'something', but 'himself' for our salvation; so also in marriage the spouses give 'themselves' to each other, and they do this 'totally, unconditionally and irrevocably'. Should any, of these qualities be lacking in the spouses, then their 'giving' is not complete and therefore their marriage is invalid, because it does not reflect Christ's giving himself to us.