Love is Somewhat Important
As I study Medieval Philosophy and the application of philosophy in life in general, but also theology; I am struck by a truth that subordinates all human activity to one thing, love. The most essential human ability is to love, the rest of our being act in accord with this purpose insofar as they are used for authentic and whole love. No human preoccupation is greater than love, and other human activities are acting in accord with their highest purpose and God's will insofar as they move all they involve to greater love. In love, we were created, are called, are given meaning, are rightly ordered, and we are rightly destined.
God is good and infinitely so. Goodness by nature is self-diffusive. God being good, created all things in this goodness, to reflect this goodness, and only by reason of His goodness. God does not need what He created and even with the reality of sin is more prone to lose what He loves. God, to love, must necessarily allow for the possibility of evil, because freedom is required for love. This freedom is radically capable to use for good or ill. We were made in His Image and Likeness and therefore His goodness and love. Goodness is a part of love. Goodness necessarily gives and love pursues the good of the other.
By being made in God's image, we bear the desire, calling, and nature to be good and loving. Man is most happy and truly longs to be good, to love, and to be loved. In sin, man denies himself of these. Through sin, man loses his disposition to goodness and love and is further prone to mistake other things, if not evil, for them. This is the essence of the mystery of sin which is given the descriptors: Burden, Stain, Injury, Wound, Punishment, Debt, and Marred Image. Sin is a turning from God, the source of life, and therefore choosing that which is lacking in life, goodness, and love.
Man's ultimate purpose is to love. The individual man/woman is destined for love most concretely with fellow men and women to serve each other who are Images of God and are themselves that in which God Himself dwells. Man is by nature dependant on all others for happiness, health, wealth, education, the spread of the Gospel, and safety. Sin works against all of these. That which one takes is to another loss. Where riches abound for one they are scarce for another. Where education is withheld or manipulated, it continues to deceive man against the truth. Where man insists upon sin, there is a spiritual implosion: everything becomes destined for taking that which is "needed", others become unwilling to care for another, institutions at large lose their commitment to the common good, etc. Truly sin is a negative-sum, each sin has an effect on the whole of the human family. In chemistry, the discussion of entropy applies, a system's equilibrium is affected through reactions, and matter increasingly becomes more diverse and thereby less useful. Sin shares this perpetual path of good to bad to worse. Sin breaks down man and obstructs him from his purpose/fulfillment and thus his good.
Our lives, institutions, systems, and ends harmonize and work together in love. It is love that integrates man's goodness, and it is sin that disintegrates. Sin moves us to take from God and others. Contrarily, love moves us to care for others, and through its succession, we find ourselves cared for. If our governments and economic systems serve man's needs and thus the common good, they perpetuate themselves and are appreciated by its benefactors/citizens. It is love that does not leave anyone behind, indifference is the opposite of love. In a fallen world, love will not be given the strength to heal all disunities, but it is toward the pursuit of that end to which love constantly moves. The common good is served exclusively by love, if not mutual benefit (which arguably contains some love within it).
Love is our destiny. If we constantly choose sin, then we constantly choose dissociation from God and neighbor, and (sometimes as a direct, and others, indirect result) ourselves. We cannot love ourselves if we do not love others nor can we love others without loving ourselves. Love is the New Covenant and fulfills all other covenants. Marriage is the consistent analogy of God's relationship to man. The highest expression of self-gift and willing the good of the other, that two become one in needs, efforts, etc. This oneness with God is the essence of heaven, which is thence both on earth and in eternity.
In conclusion, how are we doing? There is really is no debate if you want an ordered life for yourself and others, then love is what you do. If you would work for the good of the world, love is what you do. If you want to teach the world to love you teach children to love because they will be the world. Love is authentically and selflessly willing the good of another. What is wrong with the world? Sin. Mother Angelica had a saying that often life is taken to seriously and that sin is the only tragedy. This is now self-evident.
O Lord, flame my heart for what is good,
Increase my heart in love if you would.
Few things I want but Thee,
Thou alone my spouse shall be.
O how our hearts long,
Let us not fill it with wrong.
Make our hearts with Thine accord,
That we with the angels may sing “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY Lord!”
