Human love made divine

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE are meant for loving. That’s why we have intelligence and will, both encapsulated in our heart. That’s why Christ once said, insofar as the intelligence is related to the heart, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts.” (Mt 15,19) And insofar as the will is also in the heart, King David said, “Set your heart to seek the Lord.” (1Chr 22,19)

We need to see to it that our intelligence and will, our mind and heart and, in fact, all our other faculties—our emotions and passions, our memory and imagination, etc.—should be made to learn how to love properly. They should not just be used to pursue purely personal, i.e., egoistic, and temporal goals.

They should learn to have the true love which can only be a living participation and channeling of the very love which is the essence of God and is meant also to be the essence of our humanity, since we are God’s image and likeness. Thus, human and natural love, which is always wounded, should be elevated to the supernatural order, to partake of the divine love that is also meant for us.

We need to elevate and purify our human love to make it divine. This is done when our love is animated not simply by our human powers alone, but by the grace of God. With God’s grace, which is always made available to us, our intellect and will, i.e., our heart, and all our other human faculties, get healed. As a result, we would never say enough in our self-giving.

We would always be thinking of others, avoiding the tendency to simply think of our own selves, our own interests. We would always take the initiative to surrender our whole heart to God and to everybody else.

When our love is made divine, it will have a universal scope. It can prefer to suffer and die for the truth. It covers everyone, including our enemies, the unlovable, the sinners. It is given without measure, without limits, giving the impression of some kind of madness. And even when unreciprocated, our heart would just go on loving.

Human love becomes divine when we let God take our heart and make it beat with his charity. Then we just would not stop judging others. We would start working for human redemption, in vital cooperation with Christ’s continuing mission of saving man.

For this, we have to expand our heart to make it more universal, as well as broaden our mind so we can understand things more deeply and extensively. Let’s examine ourselves more thoroughly so as to be more aware of our biases and preferences that can get in the way of our effort to adapt and our pursuit for a more universal love and compassion.

We have to learn how to go through the process of changing, improving and growing in our spiritual life. This can be painful and tedious, but it is always worthwhile. Not only that. It is necessary, if we have to be realistic.

This universal love should not be exclusively associated with the sweet and tender moments of pity, sympathy and empathy. It demands sacrifice and self-denial which we should be willing to give.

Our challenging times are actually a call for us to identify ourselves more closely with Christ so we can love everyone the way Christ loved all of us and continues to do so.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com