The Look Of Love--From Jesus Series

Monday of 4th week in Course

This Gospel brings to mind a letter of Pope Benedict, “Deus est caritas,” or “God is love.” If we look at the story of Jesus and this Gadarene madman, we are struck by the question, “why did Jesus bother with this guy?” He lived in a graveyard, he stank of dead flesh and pigs, he was strong enough to kill and probably had killed, and he was bruised and bloody from the many times he had beaten himself up. He was certainly possessed by a demon, but mustered enough will to recognize Jesus as more than a man, so that he ran up and worshiped Him. What did He see in Jesus’s eyes? What attracted him? I think He saw love, because Jesus, whose whole life was an image of the Trinitarian love, pierced his soul with love.

Benedict warns us to be careful of our words. In English, “love” has many meanings–love of country, love of family, love of Almond Joy bars, love of husband and wife–they all use the same word but it has vastly different meanings. The encyclical tells us that the New Testament shies away from the use of the word eros, which means sexual love, emotional love, and tends to use the term agape, which is a love that transcends mere human attraction. Eros, that love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings, is the attraction that we refer to by “falling in love.” There is a loss of control involved. In the South, we call it the “bound-to’s.”

Modern man sees the Church warning against any loss of control of our passions, and turns cold to the Gospel. The culture around us accuses the Church of blowing the whistle on anything spontaneous. But, in fact, the Church is only concerned with the corruption of eros. Passionate love between husband and wife is right and good. It can be one of the building blocks for family and community. But when we sweep our reason and wills out of the way, disordered passions can destroy true love. It is what has given us a 50% divorce rate, a 30% rate of illegitimacy, and an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases that would be called a pandemic if it were associated with a COVID virus. We read “eros needs to be disciplined and purified if it is to provide not just fleeting pleasure, but a certain foretaste of the pinnacle of our existence, of that beatitude for which our whole being yearns.”

Shimei, a relative of the dead king Saul, was probably one of those who harbored hatred for King David. He blamed David for the death of Saul and Jonathan, the event that left Israel in need of David as supreme leader. So he threw dirt and rocks at David and his retinue as he fled the rebellious son Absalom and his army. David certainly didn’t feel any attraction for the man; his feelings were probably such that he would have allowed Abishai to lop off his head. But he reasoned rightly that if God had allowed the revolution because of an earlier sin of David, then maybe God had told Shimei to curse and abuse him. In other words, his love of God and his good reason subdued his natural emotional response. Would that every human might follow that example.

Because true love, agape, is a participation in the divine, God has made us with an inborn attraction for the good and lovable, and an aversion to evil, ugliness, hatred and death. It’s what attracted the madman to Jesus, and what made him, once cured, want to follow Jesus. As we contemplate love, both human and divine, let’s pray to God to deepen our thirst for true goodness, and to purify all of our loves so that we may one day be one with Ultimate Love and Goodness, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself.