The Pope describes, as I hear him, a "love for Jesus" that is a natural, human love - a love I have heard echoed among modern evangelicals. It is love, but not the love Jesus died to make possible for us. Please excuse the following long response to this thread, but the "love for Jesus" to which and into Whom we are called is a supernatural reality that requires - demands - deserves - a total self-gift from us. I often suffer through painfully shallow proclamations of a "gospel" to young people inviting them to "hang out with Jesus" in the Adoration Chapel, sitting in the room with the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist. "Fall in love with Jesus." I hope the actual new YouCat somehow communicates the endless depth of meaning and value, of the words and actions of the Incarnate God, the Son, Who came to suffer for us, and save us.
The disciple Peter revealed in honesty an incomplete kind of love to Jesus, and I hope he surely revealed it to himself as well - with the guidance and work of the Holy Spirit - before he died. John, the "disciple whom Jesus loved," revealed this incompleteness to the Church in his Gospel:
Jn 21:15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love[Gk: agapaō] me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love[Gk: phileō] you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."
Jn 21:16 A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love[Gk: agapaō] me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love[Gk: phileō] you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep."
Jn 21:17 He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love[Gk: phileō] me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love[Gk: phileō] me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love[Gk: phileō] you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.
Jn 21:18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go."
Jn 21:19 (This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him, "Follow me."
There is a difference between [Gk:
phileō], and [Gk:
agapaō]; a believer in the Lord Jesus, growing in the Holy Spirit, needs to strive to come into both "kinds" of love. It is not either/or; it is both/and made possible in the Spirit.
In the passages below, the distinct and different love[Gk:
agapaō] is made clearer:
Jn 13:23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved[Gk: agapaō], was lying close to the breast of Jesus,...
Jn 15:9 As the Father has loved[Gk: agapaō] me, so have I loved[Gk: agapaō] you; abide in my love[Gk: agapē].
Jn 19:26 When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved[Gk: agapaō] standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"
The passages above deserve hearing with great care and attentiveness.
The priest Jean Corbon, in his beautiful book
Wellspring of Worship (p.5), described agape love:
Agape: "love." The last and most beautiful name for God in the New Testament: "God is Agape." (1 John 4:8, 16). Agape is love that springs from goodness, from pure grace, without any non-volitional cause; it is life-giving; it renders its object lovable and gives it a paticipation in the communion that is the Blessed Trinity. That is why agape is the mystery at the heart of the Church and why the Eucharist, which is the liturgical reality of the Church, is like wise called agape.
A related Greek word is
kenosis - self-emptying (see Phil 2:7). He describes
kenosis as "the properly divine way of loving..." It means
self-emptying for the good of the beloved. He further describes "the fundamental requirement of the Gospel...: we shall be one with Christ to the extent that we 'lose' ourselves for Him." (p.7)
Corbon is a priest of the Eastern Catholic rite, of the Dominican community of Beirut.
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