On the Love of God

1. On the Love of God The First Tablet of the Decalogue Lesson 9

2. Love as a human reality • The Greeks have several words to express love: • Eros: affection kindled by physical beauty; intoxicated god-sent madness (theia mania); impulse to philosophical contemplation of the world and existence; exaltation as a result of contemplation of divine beauty; passionate joy (in Sophocles). • Philia: friendship, fellow feeling; solidarity among human beings, spouses, countrymen, people in general.

3. Agape: Christian love. • Storge: familiar love. • Philanthropia: benevolent kindness; love between sexes. • Philadelphia: brotherly love. The Greeks rarely spoke about sex. Sex was not the issue to them. They were concerned about Eros. The Greek word for sex is Phylon (a zoological term). The Latins were the same as the Greeks. Their concern was not Sexus but Amor which embraces the sensual, spiritual, supernatural and mental dimensions of love.

4. Other Latin words used for love are: • Dilectio: selection, choosing • Affectio: passion, i.e., passive nature of love • Caritas: expensive, valuable, priceless. (it is love in its highest form). Basic meaning is an act of the mind which is evaluation. • Pietas: mercy, pity. • Studium: loving concern and desire to be at the service of someone; desire to serve. St. Thomas said: “Omnis dilectio vel caritas est amor, sed non e converso.” (S.Th., I-II, 26:3)

5. In English, like and love are used to express love, though love expresses a deeper commitment. It is possible to love a person although there are many things about that person that one does not like. • Like and likeness: as in amor and amarerelated to the Greek hama(at the same time), like and likeness are related to the Latin similis(same). • There is a link between love and likeness: love includes and is based on a preexistent relation between the lover and the beloved. Love creates unity. • To be fond of : the Mediaeval English word is

6. fonned, a past participle which means enchanted, bewitched. To be fond of suggests a kind of fascination of the mind. When we love, we are stirred, changed. We suffer, we are in turmoil. • Is love a rapture over the beloved, being rapt by the beloved? Rapture means being carried away by force, transporting one out of oneself.

7. In Russian, • Lubovatsia means to love with the eyes. It is a form of loving that becomes a reality through seeing (seeing someone beautiful). As regards beauty, Plato said that the quality that makes a thing the object of possible love is beauty. Hence, only the beautiful is loved. We can’t help loving what is beautiful. (Pulchum est quod visu placet). • Blagost means the love of God for mankind.

8. In Tagalog, we have the words • Pag-ibig: root is ibig (like), and from ibig we also have kaibigan. • Mahal: expensive, precious, valuable. In French, we have the words -Amour: love in general as affection profonde -Sentiment d’affection: erotic love. -Cheri: expensive; valuable, precious.

9. To love God above all else • The virtue of religion: it is a part of the virtue of justice that helps us maintain our relationship with God to whom we owe our existence. • By the virtue of religion, we acknowledge God within the context of worship. • Since God sent his Son Jesus to save us from our sins, we must respond appropriately. It must be a response to believe in Him, trust in his help and to love Him.

10. Worshiping God • The worship of God is a practical exercise of the 3 theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Love. • Believing, trusting and loving are 3 basic attitudes found in personal relationships. • Cultivating and practicing them help us mature as persons. • For us Christians, the 3 theological virtues infused in us by the Holy Spirit in Baptism make it possible for us to believe in, hope in and love God.

11. Worship of God 3 theological virtues

12. Faith • Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe in all that He has revealed to us, and that the Holy Church proposes for our belief because He is truth itself (CCC 1814). • Faith is our response to God’s revelation. • It is a free human act: a personal adherence of the heart and soul to God’s self-revelation.

13. Faith without deeds is dead faith . (James 2:14)

14. Faith widens our knowledge because we get to know the divine truths beyond the grasp of our natural reason. • Our belief is based on God’s authority. • We cannot be saved without faith (Mk 16:16). • Faith does not contradict reason. Once we accept the truths of Faith, we should seek to understand and defend these truths. • Our Faith must be a Faith that seeks understanding.

16. Our response to God’s revelation involves 2 basic attitudes: • 1) receiving it with humility; • 2) cultivating it intellectually. • Once Faith is known and its content understood, we have 2 additional duties: • 1) safeguarding it; • 2) spreading it. • Faith must be lived and experienced. It must inform our thoughts, words and actions. Faith without deeds is dead faith (James 2:14)

18. Sins against Faith • Voluntary doubt disregards or refuses to hold what God has revealed as true. • Involuntary doubt hesitates in believing or overcoming difficulties connected with the faith and fails to attempt to dispel them. • Atheism is the refusal to accept God’s existence. • Heresy is the obstinate denial by a baptized person of some truths that must be believed with divine faith. Example is Nestorianism.

21. Apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith. Example is a Catholic who becomes a Muslim. • Schism is the refusal to submit to the Pope or be united with the Church subject to him. Example is the Anglican Church (England) that separated from Rome in the 16th century during the reign of King Henry XVIII.

23. Hope • Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire and await from God eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to merit it and to persevere to the end of our earthly life. • Hope responds to the aspiration to happiness God has placed in our heart.

25. Hope is fundamental to overcoming life's challenges.

27. It directs us to our real happiness. • Hope keeps us away from discouragement. • It opens our heart in expectation of eternal happiness. • It keeps us from selfishness and lead us to the happiness of love. • The first commandment infers that the Christian should have trust in God and foster hope in eternal life.

28. Sins against Hope • Despair is the loss of trust in God because of doubt in his fidelity or his interest in each of us. • Presumption can occur in 2 ways: 1) when one expects salvation without personal effort or 2) when one trusts solely in one’s effort without the help of the Holy Spirit. • Hope includes fear of punishment if one offends God. A child’s trust does not negate a father’s justice.

31. Charity • Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God (CCC 1822). • Christian love has 3 objects: God, neighbor, and self. • We should love God because He is our Creator, our Father and our Savior. Our love for Him is our response to His love for us “for He first loves us.” (1 Jn 4:19).

34. Sins against God’s love • Indifference is the refusal to reflect on the prior goodness and power of God’s love. • Ingratitude is the refusal to acknowledge and return God’s love. • Lukewarmness is failure or hesitation in responding to divine love, and can imply refusal to obey the prompting of charity.

41. Acedia is the refusal of the joy God gives, and it causes one to be repelled by divine goodness. It is a form of depression that leads to discouragement. • Hatred of God opposes the love of God, denies his goodness, and curse him as the one who forbids sin and inflicts punishment. It is a result of pride.

42. Jesus said: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 15:9,12) • Genuine love of God leads to the love of neighbor. • The Christian is asked to love others as he loves himself because he is created in the image and likeness of God.

43. The virtue of Religion • The virtue of religion helps us render to God the worship, devotion, honor, and service that God deserves. • The requirements of justice lead us to give God the honor and worship due him. • This virtue regulates the relationship between God and us.

44. This is basically fulfilled through prayer and especially in the sacrifice of the Mass. • A summary of the acts belonging to the virtue of religion is commonly found in the Mass: adoration, atonement, petition, and thanksgiving. • The virtue of religion is essential to Christian life. Its practice at times requires heroic effort because of secular society. • A Christian should be ever more vigilant in the protection of her faith and the growth of the virtue of religion.

45. Sins against the virtue of religion • Idolatryis the elevation of other realities to the state of gods, thereby making them take the place of the real God. These realities could be power, pleasure, state, money, etc. • Superstitionis any belief or practice that renders false worship to God, or attributes supernatural or magical powers to certain objects or ritual actions. It has many forms.

46. Money Pleasure Power Possessions Work Relations

47. Divination is the prediction of the future or the revelation of the unknown through the so-called paranormal means like recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead, horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omen and lots, clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums. All these contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone (Cf. CCC 2116).

50. Magic is the desire to know and control the occult forces that supposedly influence the world. Witchcraft is one of the most common and seriously sinful forms of this evil. • “All practices of magic and sorcery, by which one attempts to tame the occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others –even if this were for the sake of restoring their health- are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion.