True Love
True Love

JMJ

If you spent Valentine’s Day with your beloved and exchanged cards, flowers, and/or chocolates, God bless you. I am happy you have that joy in your life. Even though I wrote about marriage last year in an article called “How Hallmark Destroyed Marriage,” I hope that people enjoy the feast of St. Valentine. This year, however, I am interested in different aspects of love.

The ancient Greeks had many words for love, one of which was called eros, the romantic love between men and women. They even named a God Eros, who the Romans called Cupid, the delightful naked cherub of Valentine’s Day. To differentiate from eros, the Greeks called the love of God, agape, and the love between friends, philios. This is why Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love. In a post-Valentine’s twist, I will address these two loves in the context of Christian living.

Our Lord sanctified marriage with His presence at Cana and by turning the water into wine. This gives us confidence to celebrate eros with our beloved via chocolate, roses, and tacky cards. While He performed his first public miracle at a wedding, Jesus had a lot to say about the other two loves during His ministry.

Agape – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” (John 15:9)

Philios – “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)

In these two quotes, you can see Our Lord creating a connection between agape and philios. In a frightening proposition, we must love one another as God loves us. God gave His only son to the world, so we would be saved by His death. This is the sacrificial love we are called to.Together, both agape and philios constitute Christian love.

Jesus simplified the Ten Commandments into two. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Again, he reminded us of agape and philios in direct terms. He pointed out the widow, who gave her last two coins, as the one who gave the most because of her sacrifice. Her love hurt. Our Lord punctuated all of His teaching with the passion and the crucifixion. The entire Gospel message ends with a resounding display of agape. The love of God leads to insults, pain, betrayal, even death.

After the Resurrection, Jesus asks Peter and symbolically us, “Do you love me?” If we say yes, he replies, “Feed my sheep.” He commands Peter to lead the church in serving the least among us. It is through this action that Peter is forgiven for his denial of Our Lord. Acting in agape and philios, let us strive to do the same.

Copyright 2018 Mark Andrews

Mark Andrews is a husband, a father, lector, singer, and Knights of Columbus member. Mark's novel The Joy of the Lord is a historical fiction about the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. It is available at Amazon in both paperback and Kindle.