Love as a Building Block of Moral Value
To become fully human, the individual must become free to love others. By love, we don’t mean “romantic”, which has today become meaningless. The word love is a swampy concept,a semanticconfusion.
Love should be taken to mean commitment and concern to one’s neighbor;in short,service to others. To be a person for other is be at their service….Love is a “many splendored thing”.There are many view points and aspects of love.But one of the most human and true to life viewpoints is the experiential or phenomenological descriptio of the experience of love,which the author adpots.
Although we can talk about love all we want,we will never know what it is really until we have been in love;when we really fall in love,then it is no longer mere verbosity;it is an event-we are no longer the same person;love has changed our lives.
Love begins when I begin to care for the other,when I give the active concern for the other. The worst state to be in is when I can’t give a damn about other people….The appeal of the other is not what he has or what he does not have. Rather,it is what he is himself.The same could be said about sex. When we try to ask a couple who have been married for thirty years or more what they found in each other they are at a loss because whenwe touch the phenomenon of love,we touch the heart of reality which is so rich that it defies analysis.We are touching the domain of the “incommunicable I”.A human person is not just a listing or an inventory of this qualities and characters which can be filled on a computer card.
The Creativity of Love..it takes much time to really get to know who the person is; the more you know,the more you need to know;love is full of many surprises.This is the reason why we sometimes hear people say:” I never expected her to be so dominating:” or ” I never expected him to beso cruel.” Some psychologist remark that the best time to visit a girl at home is before breakfast. We are living in a phony world.in a hyprocritical society. We often appear what we are not.
Love creates a new “You”. This is the “you-for-whom-I-care.” This “you-for-whom-I-care”cannot be discovered by scientific inquiry,by by sociology,kby anthropology or by psychology;it can only be discovered by the one who loves,for this “you”is not the sum total of all the qualities that offers an answer to questionaire….Love is the acceptance of the other as he/she is. By love,I create a new meaning for the other. If love is reciprocal,in making the other be he also makes me be….An appeal of love from another makes me discover a new me: who I really am. We see ourselves better in the other. The other is a mirror of the real me. Love give me insight into my meaning for the other.
“I love the girl because she brings out the best in me.” “When I am with her I become a better person.”says Barbara Streisand: “People who need people are the luckiest people.” But, first be a person. What i am and the meaning of my life depends very much on others. “No man is an island.” “It is impossible to come to an understanding with one who is unnable or does not want to see.”Pinakamahirap gisingin ang taong nagtutulugtulugan.”
Love is giving a giving of the best, a giving of self……Love is a life of giving and giving of life…..
Persons are Gifts
Persons are gifts,which the Creator God send to us…wrapped. Some come wrapped very beautiful. Some in very ordinary wrapping paper. Some persons are very loosely wrapped,others very tightly. Sometimes the gift has been mishandled in the mail. Once in a while there is a special delivery!
But the wrapping is not the gift! It is so easy to make that mistake. It’s amusing when babies do. Some persons gifts are very easy to open up; others need to be helped out of their boxes. Is it because they are afraid? Do they think it might hurt to be opened? Maybe they have been opened up before and thrown away! Could it be that their gift is not for me?
I am a person. Therefore, I am a gift too! A gift to myself, first of all. God my Creator gave myself to me! Have I ever really looked inside the wrapping? Am I afraid to? Perhaps I’ve never accepted the gift that I am. Could it be that there is something else inside the wrappings than what I think is there.
Maybe I’ve never seen the wonderful gift that I am. Could God’s gift be anything but beautiful? I love the gifts, which those who love me give to me. Why not the gift of me? And I am a gift to other persons. Am I willing to be given to other? To be a person for others? Do others have to be content with the wrapping never permitted to enjoy the gift?…..Every meeting of persons is an exchange of gifts…
Love is a relationship between persons who see themselves as they really are. Gifts given by God to be given to others….
