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Love is in the air! | by Fr Andrew Mitcham SSC of St. Michael & All Angels |
| February 14th has been a day associated with love and lovers, since Pre-Christian times. The ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a spring festival celebrating sexual and romantic love, coincided with this date, which was also associated with the springtime mating of birds. Last month Benedict XVI announced the publication of his first Papal Encyclical, entitled: Deus Caritas Est ("God is love"). “Love”, the Pope said “has become so overused that its meaning is confused, and we must retrieve it” Few would disagree with this statement, yet part of our problem lies with the English language itself. William Barclay, a onetime lecturer in New Testament Language and Literature at Glasgow University, wrote: “When a lad of the Scottish Highlands loves a lass, his Gaelic language provides him with 20 different words to tell her about it!” An Englishman uses the same word to express his “love” for his wife, his job, his new car and football - which may be convenient but is hardly helpful or illuminating! | The most frequently-used word for love in the New Testament is agape. Many books and articles have been written on the full meaning of this one small word. Agape is the highest form of love, a love that isn't satisfied serving only itself, but instead fulfils its purpose in reaching out and helping others. Sometimes translated, charity, agape is the subject of Saint Paul’s great sermon on love, contained in I Corinthians 13:- “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Words which provide us all with something to get our head and heart around this Valentine’s Day! |