DRAWING NEAR TO LOVE

Joseph Ratzinger (1927-2022), Pope Benedict XVI, wrote:

“Love involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier when we first fell in love… Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking… instead it seeks the good of the beloved; it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.

Love is a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self toward its liberation through self-giving…

Love is drawing near to the other; it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to ‘be there for’ the other. The element of Agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise Eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature.”

This is a reminder of Paul’s love letter in 1 Corinthians 13. It also brings to mind, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), “The measure of love is to love without measure.”  

I am trying to get this kind of thought down inside me for both Roz and Jesus… and hopefully others.

“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” Jesus