Love, the Source of the One and the Many

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Have you ever wondered what purpose philosophy really serves? Well, philosophy is the father of science. When philosophically approaching the categorization of beings, certain philosophical terms/concepts must be derived. Form and matter, act and potency, substance and accident, and essence and existence, all of these aspects of being come from answering the fundamental question of how beings came to be, remain, and come to not be any longer. The sum of these concepts strives to answer the questions of how all things are alike and different, unified and still individually distinct, and cohesive and yet divisible. In all these things if follow causal sequences we can trace love to be the active source and force behind all that is one and yet many.

We know from St. Paul's description of the implications of living the Gospel that love, "binds all things"(Colossians 3:14). There is no other source and force of harmony, joy, health, and wholeness than love. When we receive the love of others in the ways which we need, we are healed of our affliction through an intense communion with God because God is love. It is His essence, and it can flow through us to others. Even lesser goods, like ecosystems, are bound by a certain principle of balance even if it is not a direct manifestation of God’s love like it was in the case of human communion, it is never-the-less a “system of love”. A “system of love” consists of a “system” which at large and even in a particular work for not only the best-possible harmonious good within itself but also for the individuals within it and its neighboring systems. The ultimate example of this is the Church.

Love is also the source of the many. Love as we know is willing the good of the other without clear or certain reference/benefit to self. It is the natural self-diffuse mice quality of love that can spill over giving greater/more diverse expression to itself and even to existences. Even when God became incarnate, the climax moment of his love in expression and potency, He was stretched beyond Himself. How has He not loved us? Is His love not abounding in ways both tangible and not? We must also speak martial and Trinitarian love for in both love for the other becomes a decisively creative force in which not only the love of the two is maximized but the desire for another is realized. We are quite literally made of the culmination of marital love as our parents’ bodies meet they remain one in our very DNA and thereby they are made many. This physical expression of an already intense and non-physical love becomes a whole other being. This is echoed in the words of God in the original creation of man (Genesis 1:26).

In conclusion, it is not difficult to understand why God created. Neither is it difficult to notice to what extent we are called to participate not only in the Trinitarian love but also to share in His life. Indeed, every aspect of our being is formed by spiritual, then natural, supernatural love. Real love natural and without external imposition, moves beyond itself, ever-growing. Love joins all things in truth, goodness, and beauty. Where love is stifled or held back, there is destruction to our being because it is contrary to our nature i.e. our likeness to God. In all finite loves, an infinite love should be present. Just as we are made one by not only “systems of love” but also spiritual unity in God, we are made to be “more” by our own love and that of others. This “more” is expressed certainly expressed by every aspect of our personal growth but also by creation's natural disposition to multiply, to serve more needs than self, and to be made ever new. It is from God who is love, that we end up speaking in paradoxes like "source and summit".

O God your love makes me whole
I long to see your face
Your story continues from of old
one of salvation and grace.

Harmony pervades creation
Even amid sin.
You bring healing and Inness to every nation,
You bring us back no matter where we have been.

Your love erupts forth in creation,
It spills forth in excess.
It wells up within me at every station,
No greater love than your duress.
I am a created entity, not a person.

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