Is there any word in the English language
that is thrown around as much as “love”?
How about in any other language, for
that matter? We hear the word
“love” everywhere. Is there any
song on the radio these days that is not
about this word? How often do we see
this topic in popular culture? How
many clothing lines, backpacks, school
supplies, you name it- have hearts on them
or other love-themed pictures? We hear
people using this word often in public, when
saying something like “Oh, I love that!”
or, “I’m in love.” Certainly,
everyone seems to know what love is, and
I’m pretty sure everyone has an idea of
what it means to be “in love.” But
truly, despite how often we hear this word,
do we really know what love is?
I think it’s safe to say that we
love something when it has a lot of meaning
for us, or when we really, really, enjoy
something- a good restaurant, a movie we
really enjoyed, maybe a song, a piece of
jewelry, or anything else, we say that we
“love” it. What about a person?
We all love our parents, relatives and
friends we meet in our lives, which is
definitely a kind of love. What about
a special someone in our life? One day
we find ourselves in the presence of someone
we find attractive, someone we’d like to
get to know more about and be around.
We find that we have butterflies in our
stomach when we see them, we want to know
more about them, and more than anything we
really want them to like us back. When
this happens, we say that we “have a
crush” on this person, or we “like”
this person, or we’re “in love with”
this person. Here is where our
question comes in…
There’s no doubt that love, to a degree,
is an emotional response. Those
butterflies in our stomach are our blood
rushing and hormones getting amped up.
But why does this reaction happen? Is
it just because we find the person
physically attractive? Is it simply
because we’re infatuated with them?
That’s probably part of it, but not all of
it. Someone’s personality plays a
part, doesn’t it? Even if a person
is very attractive, are we just as inclined
to want to be in a relationship with them if
that person is mean and acts like a jerk?
We probably don’t have the same feelings
for them after that, do we?
The truth is that romantic love is just as
much a spiritual response as it is a
physical one. When we find that we are
“in love with” someone, part of it is
because our soul wants to have a special
relationship with that person.
Something about that person’s soul
connects with us. Have you heard a
story of someone meeting their future
spouse, and they knew right away they wanted
to marry them? I felt this happen to
me, and I am convinced it is a reaction of a
person’s soul. As I heard a dear
priest once say to me, it’s “two hearts
speaking to one another.”
Think
about this: God is love (1 John 4:8), and
therefore whatever true love we feel has
been created by God. God wants to have
a special relationship with each of us, and
we, too, since we’ve been created in His
image and likeness, feel this as well-
someone’s heart connecting with ours.
Physical attraction is healthy, since God
has given us these feelings as well.
If we are to have a healthy relationship,
however, even a “healthy crush,”
physical attraction cannot be the only
attraction we feel, and we should not be
duped by pop culture into thinking it is.
So what is love? “Love” is
an emotional reaction, yes, and something
physical, but it is also very much a
function of our soul, something we truly
realize in our faith in Jesus Christ who
loves each of us. With this in mind,
we can be guided to a healthy idea of love,
and who we are “in love with.”
