On Love

Martyrdom is the supreme act and accomplishment of Romanticism. It is Love's most sincere and impressive attempt to seduce the souls of men into intimacy with itself; into intimacy with intimacy; into the deepest intimacy. Only the man who lays down his life for you, truly lifts up his heart to you.

What is higher than Love, that it should be praised, while the charms of Holy Lovers are anywhere unsung? Let us praise that to which praise is most due; being that to which most praise is due. May we honor the Holy Lovers of God, and God, who inspires their holy devotion to Love.

The True Lover is defined by Love, by his commitment to Love; before all things, in place of all things, and in the form of all things. Love, for him, is not merely the highest, but the only priority. Even when he is attending to the smallest things, his attention is infused with the greatest Love. In giving his all to Love, he becomes the Lover (becomes worthy of the name "Lover"); the one defined by his Love. Because Love alone suffices to define him, in essence, he becomes one with Love; he becomes Love. But, even more than this, he is Love becoming more completely itself; Love personified and perfected.

Our Love for Love is never unrequited. The Lover of Love is never without his sweetheart. He possesses her within, and kisses her with every beat of his heart. To long for her is to perceive her charms; to look for her is to follow her steps; to see her is to hold her form.

To love God is only to love the essence of things; to love them for their own sakes. One who "loves" sugar for its sweetness does not love it for itself, but for the quality it contains or confers. If you love sweetness, do not love it in this or that thing, but in itself. What is there that is sweeter than sweetness? Reflecting in this way, you will naturally be led towards Love: What is more to be loved than Love?

There are some who call the idea of Love a mere abstraction, and say only its particular forms are real. But this is very similar to denying the nude body, and believing only in the outfits we see it sporting. The forms of Love come and go; Love takes them up and puts them down; not to hide, but to adorn; to celebrate and accentuate certain of its features. Those who see Love only in the daylight hours, do not know her eternal form. While her garments fall, the idea of Love endures; more naked and more honest than the forms she takes according to our passing styles and customs.

To love God is to be in love with Love itself. Christ, or God as He appears to man, is really the Love that is loved. God's Love is that part of our own Love which is purest, and unattached to perishable objects, being the Love For Love itself; Love for it's own sake; not as a means to possession, but as an end in itself. Christ is God, not as He exists, but as He is known by man. Love, where it is known, is loved; by its nature, it engenders itself; as it matures, it arouses a response which is identical, or symmetrical, to itself. Love known is Love mirrored back to Love, or Love in Love with Love.

The Holy Trinity is this: Love, Love's Reflection In The World, and Love's Response to Love. They are distinct in appearance, but they are one process which can only be entirely understood as a whole. Love is not an object, but an occurrence, or event. It's origin and essence is with itself, but the manner of its manifestation is to reflect itself back to itself, -- thereby engendering an infinite loop of Love in Love with Love. The three members of the Trinity do not pose a limit to the endless multiplication of their natures, but, rather, they serve to symbolize and express that very increase.

The purpose of the symbol, if it is a living symbol, is not to contain something, but to suggest it. The symbolism of the number three is, ironically, suggestive of this very aspect of symbolism, which is to imply continuance. ONE may be complete in itself, and TWO may be in stalemate, but THREE gives an clear impression of motion. In the Greek trinity of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis, the third member always suggests itself as another, higher Thesis. So, in Christian terms, the Holy Spirit, which is Love's Response to Love, or Love Inspired By Love, also suggests the first member or the Trinity, or the Father, who issues the creative breath which condensces, for a moment, on the vitreous surface of the earth, in the form of Jesus Christ.

Consider the analogy here, as Christ is likened to an ephemeral breath of steam upon the mirror, which simultaneously reveals and conceals the image of the Father. Jesus is that emanation of God, made up of His substance, to be sure, and as close to the Father as His own breath. We would say that He is not the Father, in that the breath of a man is seemingly not equal to the man, but for the fact that a man's breath is also his life. It does not end upon his lungs, but gives vigor to his blood, as well. Likewise, breath carries some part of him into the world, and does not end, but merges and proliferates itself with every contact that it makes. Nor does the breath of God's Holy Spirit end upon the mirror, in the image of Christ, but reflects Him back to Himself. The icon is never two-dimensional; if it is seen, it is seen through. Christ, appearing in the world, shares God's Love, and wherever it spreads, it serves to reflect the Father who breathed life (and Love) into his veins. Then the winds which we take into ourselves are those which contain, or rather suggest, the breaths we have taken long before. So it is with God. The Love which He exudes, the Love which returns to Him, and the Love which is His very Life may be comprehended as three distinct phases of a single process, which is the eternal unfolding of Love; or as three unique faces of a single Being, which is God.

Love fills the vacuum of the soul; the space within. If there were no vacuum, no spaciousness within the soul, then there would be no Love to fill it. We could imagine the soul, or the vacuum, as coming into being only for the purpose of being filled by Love, and existing only inasmuch as it is continually expanding with Love.

Love gives itself to, and is embraced by, the space it occupies, as wine taking the shape of the pitcher into which it is poured. Love is, therefore, a dynamic relationship between Lover and Beloved, where each shares in the identity of the other (the Lover is also beloved; the Beloved is also loved), and both receive their identity from Love.