again, on love - wednesday after epiphany

We reflect on our first reading today. 

What is love.  Yesterday I read from some Jesuit priest what I think best defines love.  Love he said is a passionate desire for the well-being of the other.  Let’s try to look into this definition.

First when something is fueled by passion or to be passionate, it means that the person is inflamed as it where, it means avid to the point of obsession, it means fervent to the point of adoring, it can even be fanatical, zealous and overly enthusiastic.  One thing that passion is not is indifference nga daw wala labot because passion is always accompanied by the adjective intense.

Second, desire.  Desire is a movement, it is not just a feeling of pity, or a feeling of sympathy.  Desire is a movement that can only rest when the good is obtained.  I must obtain the good.  Only then can you say that your desire is at rest because it has reached fulfillment.

And third, the other.  Love is never for one’s sake.  It is not for one’s good.  Look at for example the logic of John.  God loves us so much and thus we must love one another.  It would have been logical to say, God loves us so much and thus we must love God also greatly.  Why is this not so?  Because love would always seek the good of the other.

Vocation is always founded on love.  It is borne out of this kind of love.  There is passion.  Do you have passion?  Is it intense?  There is desire a movement to obtain the well-being of the other.  IT is not just a feeling of pity, or sympathy or joy – there is a movement.

And third in a vocation there is that desire to seek the good of the other.  It is not concerned with what I would get, this is not a profession.  The compensation is the happiness of having made a difference in the life of another.

And so the question is this:  At this point in your life, fourth year college, are you capable of a vocation? 

Another indication of a vocation founded on love is this – there is no fear.  There is no fear in love, John wrote, but perfect love drives out fear.  A good decision gives one serenity.  When something is decided not out of love but about what others would think about me, what my parents expect of me; when something is decided not out of love but because of what I want, then there can be no peace, there can be no joy.  Vocation is always founded on love.  The question is, are we already capable of a vocation?