Last Thursday, at the CLP in SPP, Father Angel gave an interesting talk about Loving Your Neighbor. He told us that there are three levels of Love.
The first one is Instinct. This level is based on feeling and emotions. I think this is where love at first sight falls. This is where you stay in a relationship with a person simply because she makes you feel good. According to Father Angel, this is the commercial form of love and where the most of the people are in.
The second is Moral. This is where you love a person because your conscience obliges you to.
The third level is Commitment. This is the highest level of love and this is where we should strive to be. This is choosing to love a person despite her short comings. This is the love that I want and the love I will promise to give.
With all these, the film Captain Corelli's Mandolin's definition of love comes to mind...
When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots are become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the desire to mate every second of the day. It is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every part of your body. No... don't blush. I am telling you some truths. For that is just being in love; which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over, when being in love has burned away. Doesn't sound very exciting, does it? But it is!
Amen to that, Dr. Iannis! =)
3 comments:
hmm.. interesting..i've been thru those levels.. and the third one's the most difficult..but shud be the one that we all shud strive.. hmm.. i should be re-attending those clp's ;)
btw, i have seen this movie.. but i didnt remember being struck by this line. my mind was probably somewhere else, which is too bad. i should see the movie again. :)
just realized .. dont u think it wud be nice to be inlove with someone out of ur instinct... then follow it thru with the commitment right after?
i mean.. the "instinct" has got to be there.. db?
hmm.. i sound like i'm way too affected .. lol.. ignore me :D
lol
that is exactly why it is the first level. we first love out of instinct. =)
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