Leaving aside, today, what God’s love for humans might
consist in.
Leaving aside the love of parent, child, and spouse.
Love, in all other settings, is not:
- Attraction
- Romance
- Desire
- Admiration
- Veneration
- Worship
- Favouritism
- Possession
- Control
But a dispassionate, impersonal, unsentimental wishing the
best for all (benevolence) and doing the best for all (beneficence).
And that in the face of the horrors of the world.
It is not pink and fluffy. It is not nice.
It is realistic, free of illusion, and chastened by
experience.
It is despite experience of the object, not because of it.
It is free of agenda, axe-grinding, personal motivation, or
desire for recognition or reciprocation.
It could not care less, in fact, whether it is reciprocated.
If it is not universal, it’s something other than love.
Benevolence does not need to be verbalised, being an
internal disposition.
It is also what is required morally.
It does not need to be professed.
Its profession usually signifies its absence.
Beneficence is shown through appropriate right action.
Right action does not intrude.
Right action also does not announce itself.
It responds when asked but does not stage-manage.
The word ‘love’, as a signifier, or signifiers of the word ‘love’,
do indeed signify something.
But it’s rarely love.