Jesus says to his disciples that he would soon be leaving them and he gave them a clear instruction: We all think we know what love is. Love is a word used so freely and yet so taken for granted. According to Madonna, “Love makes the world go round”, and there may be more truth in that assertion, than first appears to be the case. Christians surely know what love is and what it has the potential to achieve. Or do we? We are after all, charged to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Love is supposed to be central to the praxis of all world faiths, although, given the acts of hate that sometimes occur on the part of the faithful, we may often doubt that notion. Love is however, manifest in many forms and they have been written about, spoken about, explored and expressed in countless ways. We all have a need to love and to be loved. Love is an essential part of what is to be human. But love is not so easy to define and how often do we ponder what it actually means to love? What is love actually for? Do we really understand its nature and how far-reaching love could or should be?
In much contemporary culture love is often talked about as if it is a “feeling”. Love is something that ‘feels good’ and certainly, the love that exists between two people brings inner warmth and reassurance. But populist expressions of love are often sugary and sentimental and what passes for romantic love is sometimes no more than shallow infatuation. In a recent radio discussion, I heard love being defined as: “The natural wish to help someone find comfort”. This is a definition that few of us would argue with. It is a compelling understanding of love, not as a feeling but as an engaged action. Love so expressed, is understood as an act of the will into which we are all invited to participate. It is an understanding which is essential to the human enterprise and consistent with Jesus’ own teaching.
Now it is undoubtedly true to say that there is much in the Christian tradition that has tragically, denied the body and the material world. As a consequence, our concept of love towards the profane world has been strained and left wanting. But there have been big changes in our thinking in recent decades. In our ecologically aware times, it has become increasingly clear that our spiritual understanding of love has been far too narrow and limiting. We need a broader conception of Christian love that is truly world-affirming and which unites us with all things.
The Jesuit priest, scientist, philosopher and mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin offers us a very revealing insight into the nature of love, that could potentially, have a monumental impact on humanity if it were taken seriously. Teilhard was a controversial figure and one of the first theologians to attempt to combine a scientific and evolutionary view of the universe with Christian faith. Speaking on love, he said: Teilhard speaks of love and energy being profoundly interconnected. At the cellular level of our individual humanity there are infinitesimal atoms and subatomic particles. At this level there is a force at work – a mysterious organising principle that aligns and holds together the particles of an atom in a particular pattern. This mysterious force deep in the fundamental structure of matter - is what Teilhard de Chardin calls love. He describes it thus: Teilhard describes love as a sacred reserve of energy. It is the fundamental impulse of life. We don’t see this profound mysterious love; we only get to see the results of the energy. But, we all know and feel it when its effects are made manifest.
In the engaging vision of Teilhard we are all participating in a mental and social evolution that is drawing us all towards a spiritual unity in God. If we each think of ourselves as one cell in the total body of humanity, when each of us aligns in a certain way, a field of energy is created that is love. He talks of humanity reaching a state of critical mass and igniting the invisible force of love as equivalent to the discovery of fire.
So how does this mystical outlook potentially affect our relationships with each other and the world? Teilhard argues persuasively, that if this universal energy is part of us even at the level of a single atom, then even to wilfully hurt a single human being is to potentially injure this divine power within us. Every hateful act towards our neighbour is an action that prevents from harnessing the energy of love. This is radical thinking indeed!
In Jesus life and teaching, his praxis of love was radical and groundbreaking for humanity and always about bringing people back into spiritual unity and wholeness. But the love that Jesus’ lived and taught is unconditional, utterly selfless, difficult and demanding. It ‘s a tough call as we all know! His teaching on forgiveness – unique and central to Christian love – and his journey to the Cross, show how costly this kind of love can be. When he instructs those who follow him to love one another as he has loved them he is also asking us to love in order to cultivate love. This means trying to let go of that all too frequent impulse to judge others. We could refuse to allow ourselves to feel good about the mistakes of others. Or we could challenge our desire for revenge and replace it with forgiveness. We could just opt to choose love simply by making that choice wherever and whenever the opportunity presents itself even in our attitude to the wider material world. It means understanding as Teilhard did, that Christ is seen at the centre - not just of humanity, but of all things.
If we can believe in this love – this energy – for all people, places and life situations then such a love must relate to all our experiences and interactions, both positive and negative and our relationship with the world as a whole. To help others find comfort is an imperative of Christian love, but if we care for each other and our world, we need a much more expansive, cosmic view of love. This is a ‘big love’ that is not just expressed between human beings or just directed to towards things that we desire and revere, but a love that extends into the very fabric of the whole created order. Teilhard de Chardin centres his thinking entirely in Jesus Christ and declares that we are called – indeed, we exist - to harness the energies of love. And Jesus Christ, has shown us through his life, death and resurrection that love always has the last word.