LOVE

LOVE: A NECESSARY FACTOR FOR PEACE

ETINOSA-OKANKAN CHRISTOPHER OSAMUYI

Can we define love? Do we know what the word love really means? Who can fully admit to have comprehended what the concept of love is all about?

Love they say is our greatest strength, stronger than anything one can ever think of, Sweeter than the sweetest thing man can ever claim to be very sweet. Precious than the most precious of stones, lighter than the air we breathe, but still heavier than the entire world itself. Oh what a great thing man should desire!

But in it fullness, do we really know what love means? Do we really grasp its essence? This I do not think we do, though some may say; we know what love is, but I still do not understand how best we could desire, have, pursue, or even treat this four letter word: Love.

Love is sweet, yet very bitter, light, yet still too heavy. Love can be precious, but same time unpleasant. Love prospers, but some times it fades so easily. Love can be easy to get, but still it can be difficult to have. Oh what a mysterious thing it is!

When we say mysterious, what do we mean? Do we by this mean that the concept; love, is vague? How do we see love as being vague? Or how do we project this vagueness of love? Is love really vague? Does it carry just one meaning or different meanings? What is it? Does it serve different purposes or one purpose? Oh what will I say about this thing called love!

Love for some carries only one meaning, while for some, it carries so many and for others, it does not exist. But wait a minute; does love really exist? Or is love just a word without meaning? It sometimes amazing, when they talk of its importance, its legend, stories and poems. But even in this wondering, which of these meanings, will I say love is best for? From an angle, it seems so correct, from another, it seems so perfect, but still from some certain angle, it seems not to exist at all. Oh this word love, what are you!

Love stands to be a moral word, but also stand as an immoral word. Which is it? What would I say makes it moral or immoral? Is it our perception of it that makes it moral or immoral? Can it be put as being both, that is, moral and immoral? But this will not stand, for it will be a total contradiction. Oh where will I place this word love? How can I talk of it? Ah it seems so confusing!

Love most times, stands to be a religious concept; some times it assumes the status of a social concept. As a religious concept, it cuts across all religion and in this light, it is referred to as the fraternal bond amongst members of these religions in their right. Oh if this is the case, it means that love, brings about unity!

In Christianity, which is the major perspective from which I see this word; love, we see it as a virtue, which is fundamental and we consider it the number one. For all the scripture of the Christendom, put together, reflects one common message; the love for God and for fellow men and women.

In Christianity, love entails emptying oneself for the sake of another. Not having, in other for others to possess, willing, when there seems to be no willingness, giving, when there is nothing to give, consoling others, even when one is in sorrow. Helping out even when one is in greater trouble. Showing mercy to others, even when one has not been pardoned by them. Creating time for others when there is even none for you. Having bonafide interest on others, even while neglecting you – (Mother Theresa of Calcutta). To it apex, it involves one ready to give his life for the sake of others (Jesus Christ). Doing to others, what one will want others do to oneself.

In this sense of Christianity, love seems to be none benefiting. Oh love, can you be so cruel, to let one enjoy and the other suffer! Is it that there is no room for equality? Or that your equality springs from your inequality? Which is it?

Christianity would explain love as something that man cannot do without. Hence, it teaches that it was out of love for man that man was created by God in the first place, and it is out of that same love that God redeemed man – “for God so love the world, he gave his only beloved son to die for it” (Jn. 3 : 16). Christianity teaches that man must love this God in return, this God who has given all that is dearest to him, in order that man might be saved. But Christianity does not just stop at the love of God, it also teaches that man must learn to love his fellow man, ready to share something with another out of nothing, in this it teaches that all will be equal in the sight of man’s maker (God), and through this love for one another, it says that Peace and Joy will reign among men. Hence there will be that necessary equality.

In conclusion the message from the foregoing is obvious and it is the fact that, without love for our fellow man, that necessary peace, which we tend to pray for, seizes. We must appreciate, what God has created, and then love it as we would also love him who has given us life. For there is no way one can argue to love a person, while despising what the person has created. You can not say you love God, but hate your fellow man. For us to attain the necessary peace we are looking for within and outside of us, we must first desire to love God, and our fellow men; ready to give, to listen and to cooperate with the grace of God and to be able to live together with our fellow men, in an atmosphere, of understanding, which certainly will generate and radiate that necessary Peace, Unity and Joy.