On Spiritual Love

Joe Caceres, M.D.

#love #spirituality #humanity

Love is not only a feeling or an emotion; love is a choice we make to commit ourselves to the enrichment of another person, a gifting of oneself for the betterment of another.

In the deepest sense of the word, love is a total commitment of one’s life, a yielding of oneself fully to the needs and best interests of another, a surrendering of all that is selfish.

To conduct one’s life in the attitude of love begs genuine concern for the wellbeing of every person one encounters. We manifest the sacrifices attendant to this pursuit in ways both small and large throughout our daily lives. Simple acts of courtesy: the lending of an attentive ear, the offering of encouraging words, the extending of support in troubling times—these are but a few of the modest ways in which we may express our love daily. In larger, more demanding demonstrations, we may be called upon to offer forgiveness to one we have long resisted absolving of a bygone wrong, to show mercy to one we are inclined to rule undeserving of such charity, or to extend ourselves beyond the safe limits of our available time and energy.

We must, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta prescribed, “love until it hurts;" for in maintaining a commitment to expressing the depth of our spiritual love for one another, we may find ourselves practicing a higher standard of living generally, and in turn grow that much closer to God, the very essence of love in all its splendor.