Do you really know how to love?

Human dignity, on which we insist so much today, is due to the fact that God created us "in his own image and likeness".

We often take this to mean that we have an intellect which raises us above all other creatures. This is true, but not enough. The meaning of this statement, written hundreds of years before Christ, was clarified in the last pages of Scripture, when St John wrote that "God is love". We are like God because God has made love the very essence of our existence, and hence we are human only in so far as we imitate God who is love.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity, that there are three persons who are so united as to make one being, one God, is the essence of Christianity. For how can God be love if he were alone, so to say? From all eternity each person lives for the other persons, sharing and giving himself totally to the others. Love is the only purpose of God's existence: it is his whole essence, his holiness, his power, his glory.

God can do nothing but love. Whatever he does is an expression of his love: his creating us, his sustaining us, especially his redeeming us and restoring us to his image. Theologian Bruno Forte "highlights that a deepened sense of the Trinity allows us to recognise God's sharing in the pain of the world and of the Crucifixion, as against the God of Hegel who cannot suffer" (Michael P. Gallagher).

Hence, if we are created in the image of God, the whole meaning and purpose of our existence is simply to love. Not to make a success of our career, not to make a name for ourselves or to be rich, but simply to love: to love the creator for whom we feel a certain hunger - whether we know it or not - and our fellowmen who also share the same vocation in life.

Of course, we have to work and earn a living. But whatever we do brings us no fulfilment unless it is somehow an expression of love. And rather than bringing solace and comfort, it makes us ever more restless. Augustine expresses it well: "Lord, you have created us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

Since God is love itself, we can infer that every instance of love, wherever it is found, is a reflection of, a sharing in, the Love of God. Love is not genuine unless it is a sharing in that divine love. For example, if it is selfish or manipulative, it is not authentic love because God is completely out-going and other-centred. Because of our great human limitations, love is tinged with many defects. But if we try to really go out of ourselves, to give of ourselves more and more, imitating the "excess of love" revealed by Christ and the Holy Trinity, then we can call that love, imperfect though it be. And the more perfect our love becomes, the more human we become.

Being a participation in God's love, our love should be infinite like his. Which is clearly impossible. So, nobody can ever say that he loves as he should. Love is ever growing. It is an ideal towards which we aim every moment of our life.

Is this possible? It is. Otherwise God would not have commanded us to love him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We can at least aim to give the "all" that is possible at each stage of our development.

We are called not to measure our actions, simply to pay back what is strictly due. If we realise our status as children of the Father, as brothers and sisters of his only son, we will try to excel ourselves, to give of ourselves whenever the occasion requires.

This is not as far-fetched as it may sound. We see many instances of this selfless love every day around us: the love of a mother when she gives birth, the dedication of so many parents to one another and their children, that of grandparents who give much of their time without fail for their grandchildren, the time and energy invested by teachers, catechists, missionaries, carers... When I look at so much love around me, I know that God does indeed exist and his spirit is active within each human being.

To me it is clear that it is impossible to love unless we are somehow "connected" with God, as a lamp cannot give light unless it is attached to an electric current, or a baby cannot survive unless it derives nourishment in the mother's womb.

And that is why marriage, which is based totally on love, is so difficult unless the couple are united "in God."