What does it mean to 'love' something? If a man asks a woman 'do you love me?' and if after a long and awkward pause and considerable deliberation, she replies with wrinkled brow ' well, up to a certain point, under certain conditions, to a certain extent,' then we can be sure that whatever it is she feels for this poor fellow it is not love and this relationship is not going to work out. For if love is the measure, the only measure of love is love without measure (Augustine). One of the ideas behind love is that it represents a giving without holding back, an 'unconditional' commitment, which marks love with a certain excess. Physicians counsel us to eat and exercise in measured moderation and not to overdo either. But there is no merit in loving moderately, up to a certain point, just so far, all the while watching out for number one...If a woman divorces a man because he turned out to be a failure in his profession and just did not measure up to the salary expectations she had for him when they married, if she complains that he did not live up to his end of the 'bargain,' well, that is not the sort of till-death-do-us-part, unconditional commitment that is built into marital love and the marital vow. Love is not a bargain, but unconditional giving; it is not an investment, but a commitment come what may. Lovers are people who exceed their duty, who look around for ways to do more than is required of them. If you love your job, you don't just do the minimum that is required; you do more. If you love your children, what would you not do for them? If a wife asks a husband to do her a favor, and he declines on the grounds that he is really not duty bound by the strict terms of the marriage contract to do it, that marriage is all over except for the paper work. Rather than rigorously defending their rights, lovers readily put themselves in the wrong and take the blame for the sake of preserving their love. Love, St. Paul said in his stunning hymn to love, is patient, kind, not puffed up or boastful; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13). A world without love is a world goverened by rigid contracts and inexorable duties, a world in which--God forbid!--the lawyers run everything. The mark of really loving someone or something is unconditionality and excess, engagement and commitment, fire and passion. Its opposite is a mediocre fellow, neither hot nor cold, moderate to the point of mediocrity. Not worth saving. No salt."
-John Caputo, On Religion
This is what I am reading for Religion class....I'm so excited.
Caputo is searching to explain St. Augustine's questions "what do I love when I love God?" And he further concludes that "If you do not love God, what good are you."
So what do we love when we love God...do we even really offer God the fire and passion, a lovers love? What do we replace our love with, what are we wasting our affections on?
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Your religion class is certainly more interesting in mine....we dont actually get to talk about religion, just what happens between religious people. Not so exciting...we have to leave the kind of stuff you're reading out of our class...
But that is definitely an awesome passage. I do think a lot of people waste their passions on things that are not of God, which is mostly relationships for me and most of the people i know. And i dont even mean dating, people pin their hopes on a friendship and a good time, too afraid to let go of somebody and be alone with God. Instead of letting ourselves be consumed with The Lord and His plan for us, we waste our thoughts and being with so-and-so or finding out how so-and-so is doing.
Praise God that we have grace though! We have grace to know how to love by Him showing us His love. That is indeed our goal, getting rid of things like relationships marred by unrighteous motives so that we can make our love for Him complete. And with marriage, like that guy talks about, how can we expect Him to give us one of his children to love in sacred marriage if we dont first work out our love for Him daily?
Anyways....now that i look back at all of that, that was some pretty random ranting...but whatever...i'm on duty i need something to do, right? Peace!
Luke
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