Oct 1 Thu
What's love all about?
The Ancient Greeks had 6 Words for Love
(Knowing them can change your life).
Today’s coffee culture has an incredibly sophisticated vocabulary. Do you want a cappuccino, an espresso, a skinny latte, or maybe an iced caramel macchiato?
While we just say “love”, the ancient Greeks were just as sophisticated in the way they talked about love, recognizing six different varieties.
1. PHILIA, or deep friendship. It concerned the deep, comradely friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield, or love between parents and their children. It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them
2. AGAPE, selfless love or love for everyone. It was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.” It is a “gift love,” the highest form of Christian love.
3. LUDUS, or playful love. It concerns the playful affection between children or the flirting between casual lovers at the onset of a serious relationship.
4. EROS, or sexual passion. It was viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you.
5. PRAGMA, commitment, or longstanding love. It is a mature, realistic love that is commonly found amongst long-established couples. Pragma is about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance.
6. PHILAUTIA, or love of the self. They admitted two types. One is an unhealthy narcissism, where one becomes self-obsessed and focuses on personal fame and fortune. A healthier version is self-assurance
A person who lives celibacy, out of a greater Love, only gives up the number 4 (eros) kind of love.
Thus, we must love God with total, committed, disinterested love. Anything short of it is a fraud. And we must allow Him to love us. But the Lord sets conditions. “If anyone loves father …more than me, is not worthy of me” (Lk 14:26). Hard to hear.
To love with the Love of God means to love as God has loved us in Christ, that is, unconditionally, fully, even unto death. This is confirmed by a phrase of St. Josemaría: "Only if we try to understand the mystery of God's love, of that love that reaches to death, will we be able to give ourselves totally to others, without letting ourselves be overcome by difficulty or indifference."
St. Josemaría spoke about “going deep into the depth of God’s Love.” When someone made him notice the repetition of the word “deep,” he answered, “And still I fall short”.