Love, Charity, To Love
Template:See alsoTemplate:See also
Love, charity are a central theme of the work of Maria Valtorta. It is discussed extensively in The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me because it is the major teaching of Christ to his Apostles, who teach them a great truth: God himself is Love.
God is love
Love is God and His Kingdom.
Saint John says, God is love.Beloved, let us love one another, since love comes from God. Whoever loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.[2]For his part, Jesus answers a lawyer of the Law, Salton Matthew, a scribe Salton Mark, who asked him:
"Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?" Jesus answered him: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your Heart, with all your Soul, and with all your spirit. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your Neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:36-39) and (Mark 12:28-34).Thus, love is the active nature of God, but it is also the essence of public Revelation, which covers the history of Humanity from its creation to its Home in the "celestial Jerusalem Paradise". It culminates in Redemption by which "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son" (John 3:16).
Since God is integral love, the rejection of God leaves only integral hatred.
The Kingdom of Christ is therefore defined within this perimeter:As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, as I have kept the commandments of my Father, and I remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.[3]
The demand of love.
To love as Jesus loved us is a demanding commitment that carries us beyond usual conventions:But I say to you who listen: Love your Enemies, do good to those who hate you.Our era has attempted to hide this love by distorting it. The famous slogan "Make love, not War" caricatures the teaching of Jesus to divert from His Word by playing on words.Wish good for those who curse you, pray for those who slander you.
To the one who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other also.
To the one who takes your cloak, do not refuse your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks you, and from one who takes your goods do not demand them back.
Do to others what you want them to do to you.
If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the sinners love those who love them.
If you do good to those who do good to you, what reward do you have? Even sinners do the same.
If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what reward do you have? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount.
But love your Enemies, do good, and lend without expecting anything in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Be merciful as your Father is merciful.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and it will be given to you: a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; for the measure you use will be measured back to you.[4]
Ancient Greek, one of the languages in use at the time of Jesus, did not fall into this confusion. It employed no less than four words to designate love:
- Agapè which designates disinterested, divine, universal, unconditional love.
- Éros (ἔρως / érôs): carnal love, bodily pleasure.
- Storgê (στοργή / storgế): familial affection, maternal love.
- Philia (φιλία / philía): friendship, benevolent love, pleasure in company.
All these attitudes find their place in God's plan, including carnal love, but not in their distorted forms. If the Song of Songs[5] celebrates physical beauty and passionate impulse, it also indicates the relationship that governs them by naming the young Woman: "my sister and my bride," indicating that the physical union cannot be without mutual respect.
Jesus' teaching in Maria Valtorta is comprehensive. It deals with love of God as well as love of the enemy, including conjugal and familial love.
Love is synonymous with Charity
The Greek word Agapé was translated as Charitas in the Vulgate, the Latin version by Saint Jerome that is the basis of most Bibles. Charitas became Charity in English. It therefore has the sense of love/agape.
It is thus rightly that Paul says that charity/love will never cease[6], because God is love and He is eternal.If I have the gift of prophecy,and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away all my possessions to the poor,
and if I deliver my body to be burned,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.