Agape

John tells us that God is love, “Ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν” (1 Jn. 4:16). The love known as ἀγάπη (agape) or caritas in Latin is translated into English as love or charity; the original word suggests both at once, not just one or the other, so when we read translations from Scripture or various patristic and medieval sources which talk about love or charity, we should keep this connotation in mind. Agape love is a love which has us treat others with extreme affection and care; that care, that concern, can be, and often is, self-sacrificial in the sense that we will do anything, including lose our own lives, for the sake of our beloved. The self-sacrificial nature of agape love must not be confused with a death wish; we must value life, including our own. It should lead us to follow the example of good parents who are willing to do what they can to protect their beloved, even if it is at the cost of their lives, but if it is not, they will not rush off to die, as they know they can give much more to their beloved if they live.

Agape love, therefore, motivates us to act on behalf of others, helping them with acts of charity when they need it. But it is more than mere acts of charity which is involved. It is a disposition which actually cares for those being helped. Love, real love, is involved. It is easy to give to people in need, and so be charitable, as many without love can give to charity for all kinds of reasons, including the sense of duty, vainglory, or pride, but those who give out of agape love do so because they truly, deeply care for the other in such a way that it can only be seen as love.

Thus, when we read texts talking about how God is love or God is charity, or God expects us to love others, or God expects us to show charity to others, we must understand that God wants us to act in and with a charitable-love, one which allows no real distinction between the two qualities.

Origen tells if we want immortality, if we want eternal life, we must follow God’s example and embrace agape love for ourselves. For, Origen says, if we do so, we will find as God is love, as God is agape, we will be acting in and with God; we be embracing God, we will be participating in what  God is, and so we will find ourselves joining  in and experiencing the divine life for ourselves. We will then find ourselves sharing in qualities of the divine life, including and especially God’s eternal life:

For, because God, who only hath immortality and inhabiteth light inaccessible, is Charity, it is charity alone that possesses immortality. And what is immortality, except the life eternal which God promises to give to those who believe in Him, the only true God, and in Jesus Christ, whom He has sent? And for that reason we are told that the thing which in the first place and before all else is acceptable and pleasing to God, is that a man should love the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his powers. And because God is Charity, and the Son likewise, who is of God, is Charity, He requires in us something like Himself; so that through this charity which is in Christ Jesus, we may be allied to God who is Charity, as it were in a sort of blood relationship through this name of charity; even as he, who was already united to Him, said: Who shall separate us from the charity of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?[1]

God is love, God is agape, and through that agape, God desires to share that love with all creation; the best way for us to share it is to respond in kind, to embrace the way of agape ourselves, so that in and with it, we find ourselves united with God. God desires to be connected with us in and through mutual love, to treat us as persons who can be loved by God and love  God back. It is thus love which unites us to God, and the more we partake of the divine life by our embrace of such love, the more we will become like God, acting, therefore with agape love towards everyone, which is why Origen said:

This charity, however, reckons all men as neighbours. For on that account the Saviour rebuked someone, who thought that the obligation to behave neighbourly did not apply to a righteous soul in regard to one who was sunk in wickedness; and for that same reason He made up the parable that tells how a certain man fell among robbers, as he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and blames the priest and the Levite, who passed by when they saw the man half-dead, but approves the Samaritan who showed mercy. [2]

The more we embrace God, the more we will embrace God’s ways. The more we embrace the way of agape, that is love, the more we will find ourselves becoming virtuous, casting away all vices, for all vices represent some sort of violations of love. “Let us possess such great charity, brethren, that we can love all men with our whole hearts. If you love all mankind as yourself, there will not remain a door whereby sin can enter into you.”[3] And, humanity, not just  as individuals cut off from each other, but as persons who relate to each other in and through a just social order, should also find themselves reflecting the “social order” in the Trinity; that is, as the persons of the Trinity find themselves embracing each other in and through mutual love, so humanity can and should imitate the Trinity, with each person embracing every other person with their own particular reflection of divine agape. Thus, when we consider the common good, when we consider what should be the goal of social life in general, Solovyov was right to say: “The principle of mutual charity is the perfected form of social life.”[4] In God, this perfection exists by nature, but it can and will exist in and through us by grace. God desires us to attain this perfection, this perfection of love, so that God has directed and guided us in many ways, including with various commandments which God has used to help shape us so that through them, we will better understand the reality of love, the reality of agape, and how we can and should manifest it in our actions. The more we listen and follow through with the intent of the commands, the more we will find ourselves reflecting the love found in the Trinity:

All these commandments are about Charity, my children, and they will not surprise you when you understand, once and for all, that all men together make up one family with God as their Father, Creator, Saviour, Father of all in the same manner. He loves all men incomparably more than the most tender father can love his children. And he wishes that amongst his children and amongst all the faithful there should reign perfect concord and love and tenderness, and if needed, a sweetness ever ready to yield, such as a father loves to see between his children.[5]

We were made in the image and likeness of God, of the Trinity, and this is true, not just as persons, but as a species (and of course, in another way, in the way we interconnect with the whole of creation). We are called to reflect God’s  agape, realizing it in deed, and the more we do so, the more we will find ourselves participating in the divine life, and the more we participate in the divine life, the more we will be able to do so, which is why theosis, deification, can be said to be never-ending, as we can   and will continue to grow in agape, in love, throughout eternity, and in doing so, find ourselves participating in and experiencing more and more of God’s divine nature (which is why eternal life is exciting, never boring, because we will always be partaking of something new from God’s unlimited, unbounded, nature).

[1] Origen, “The Song of Songs: Commentary” in Origen: The Song of Songs, Commentary And Homilies. Trans. R.P. Lawson (New York: Newman Press, 1956), 33.

[2] Origen, “The Song of Songs: Commentary,” 33-4.

[3] St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermons Volume I (1-80). Trans. Mary Magdeleine Mueller, OSF (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1956), 146 [Sermon 29].

[4] Vladimir Solovyey, God, Man & The Church. The Spiritual Foundations Of Life. Trans. Donald Attwater (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2016), 37.

[5] Bl. Charles de Foucauld, Meditations of a Hermit. Trans. Charlotte Balbour (New York: Orbis Books, 1981), 113.

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