Is there such a thing called ‘Pure Love’? What is love?
Love is dynamic and relational between one individual with another. Love is inclusive and all encompassing between family and friends. Love is supportive and encouraging and sees only the best in others. Love is accepting others at their worst and overlooking the flaws. Love binds together a combination of multi-faceted personalities and is free to be unique.
Love is not pretentious, but able to be oneself with others. Love is not demanding or manipulative. Love is not toxic and poisonous to the soul. Love is free, humerous, kind, gentle, selfless, beautiful, full of joy and peace. Love is freedom to be oneself without feeling closed in. Love is able to breathe in all life-giving things that makes you want to live your wildest dreams without being judged. Love is focused on the goals for your life and giving it your all. Love is having healthy friendships and always seeing the good in others.
God is Love. In Jn 3:6, it stands written that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”. Can you understand the extent of God’s love for you and me? He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die and rise from the dead for us so that we can be free to live with him forever in eternity.
God’s love is unconditional. He loves us warts and all. He overlooks our flaws and weaknesses and He brings us new life. Yes, even in our struggles and pain, He is transforming us and giving us a new lease of life. Just think about this for a moment. Jesus struggled with His Cross and fell three times on the road to Calvary. He was crowned with thorns, mocked, and scourged. He went through hell. He suffered and died on the Cross, was buried and has risen from the dead. He now sits at God’s right Hand, interceding for us. Look at all that suffering and pain He went through, all because of Love. After His death on the Cross, He rose again after three days in the tomb. He has a glorified body and is Immortal. He can never die again.
This is mind-boggling, yet it is true. Christ is the Life-Giver. He wants to give us new life, not one day when we die, but right now. He wants to raise us from the dead so that we feel like a new creation. He wants us to live now with purpose and be the best version of ourselves. Only Love can do this. His pure love calls us to the renewal of our hearts, minds and souls. His pure love enables us to love deeply all of His creation and our fellow human beings. This is pure love at its best.
Today, however, the word ‘love’ has been used haphazardly. There is no depth to it. It is used casually without any meaning. People are confused about what Love really is. Love is not just a feeling. It is an action. When two people fall in-love, it is sunshine and roses and you are floating on cloud nine. The feelings are strong and romanticised and even sexual and it is truly pure bliss. However, the honeymoon period does not last forever. The feelings disapates after a while. After the marriage, life returns back to normal and then the real test begins. When life is hard and difficult, you will know if it is true love when you stick together and work out the problems together. Pure love is there through thick and thin and never gives up on the beloved.
Through all of life’s problems, we are being tested. If we pass the test, we become transformed and healed because Love never lets us go.
In 1 Cor 13, it states what Love is. “Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not rude or jealous. It keeps no score of wrong. Love is not conceited…”
Pure love demands a lot from us. It is not just saying “I love you” to someone. It means actively putting it into practice. “I love you” means going the extra mile for someone; being there in the hard times of life; visiting someone in hospital ; giving the poor and hungry some of your clothes and some of your food ; giving jobs to the unemployed; being in the boat with others when they are in the thick of a storm and helping them through the pain and difficulties of life… and so much more. It means recognising the dignity and worth of others and making them feel loved and cherished.
All of this is pure love. We are called to “love one another tenderly, to act with justice and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).
Let us go out there and love Christ in others deeply and purely with all our hearts, because He loved us first.
“These three things remain, Faith, Hope and Love, and the greatest of these is Love” (1 Cor 13:13).
Sr Columbia Fernandez O.P
26 October 2022