Love is...

I often watch “Face to Face,” a TV5 show where at least two warring guests face off and try to resolve their issues. Guests usually end up in a brawl, trading heated words, while others come to terms peacefully.
An episode last week showed a man with a wife and three girlfriends. These women did not know about his affairs, until that moment. So they engaged in a brawl, until they all turned their rage to the unfaithful man.
When the counselors—a lawyer, a psychologist, and a priest—asked the man why he did it to these women, he answered with full confidence, “masama ba ang magmahal?”
Two male friends of mine who were watching TV with me agreed with the troubled man on the show. With a grin plastered on their faces, they told me, “Oo nga naman. sabi nga sa Bible eh ‘‘love thy neighbor.’”


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Literatures of all kinds have been written since time immemorial, in an attempt to capture the real and complete essence of love. These generally claim that love is good. But how come that sometimes it is presented as the cause of sin?
Among these literatures, only the Bible can give a complete definition of love. However, love’s biblical definition has been corrupted in the common usage of our language and society. Oftentimes, it is confused with feelings and sexual attraction, which love is not.
Love is essential to Christianity. Jesus Christ himself emphasized this when he summed up the ten commandments into two Greatest Commandments: 1) love God above all things; and 2) love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). To love God is to love our neighbors. And to love our neighbors is to service them. Thus, Christian love is concerned on others than self.

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There was once a boy who likes colorful things. One day, he saw his big sister’s sticker collection. He was attracted to it so he took some, thinking that it would be just okay with his ate.
But he was wrong. Upon arriving home from school, his ate saw what he did with her stickers. She then became really mad at him.
The little boy was sorry for what he did. Because he loves his ate, he didn’t want her to be mad at him. So he planned to replace her stickers. For days he was not eating in school. He wanted to save money from buying merienda so he could buy her beautiful stickers.
When he finally bought her stickers, he took it to her at once, saying, “ate, bati na tayo.”
No one knew the sacrifices that he went through to buy her stickers. But he no longer care about himself. All he wanted is for her sister to feel okay.

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The focus in loving is not ourselves but others. By its nature, Christian love is a sacrificial love, ready for self denial. Just like Jesus’ love for us. Jesus loves us so much that he died on the cross to save us from our sins. And just like him, we must also love our others through servicing them (John 15:3).
A priest once shared in a mass, “the real symbol of love is not the heart, but the cross. Because the heart stops beating, but the Man on the cross never stops loving.”

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