Love

postcard circa 1910

Happy Valentine’s Day. The picture sort of captures the nostalgic romanticism of the holiday, doesn’t it? The romantic connection to the day that modern commercialism has run rampant with to a most ridiculous degree. “Tell her that you love her with diamonds” say the commercials, or they suggest any number of other pricey luxuries.

Fine. The chocolates and cards and flowers are a lot of fun, and they are charming, and I love to send them. Okay, I love to receive them, too.

But I was thinking today is a good day to think about love. And to recall that when the brilliant theologian Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elevated to head the worldwide Church, the first encyclical Pope Benedict wrote was called Deus Caritas Est, God is Love. It’s captivating to read.

Let us first of all bring to mind the vast semantic range of the word “love”: we speak of love of country, love of one’s profession, love between friends, love of work, love between parents and children, love between family members, love of neighbour and love of God.

Amid this multiplicity of meanings, however, one in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness. This would seem to be the very epitome of love; all other kinds of love immediately seem to fade in comparison.

So we need to ask: are all these forms of love basically one, so that love, in its many and varied manifestations, is ultimately a single reality, or are we merely using the same word to designate totally different realities?

True love is more than a feeling. I wish you the grandeur of true love.