Recently a friend, who has been following my research about the ancient Greek version of spiritual love, recommended the teachings of Richard Rohr. So when I read his Essential Teachings on Love, I was very impressed. But I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that it took to almost the end of the book before he finally admitted that what he had been talking about was that special Greek word: agapé.
He could have avoided the need to spend so much time explaining over and over again that his use of the word ‘love’ was not meant the way most people use that word. The way to avoid the confusion would have been to start his book explaining agapé, then he could have made sure when teaching spiritual matters, to use ‘agapé’ instead of ‘love.’
Here’s what he actually did say about agapé: “For Paul, agapé (infinite or divine love) is the Great Love that is larger than you. It is the Great Self, the God Self. It’s not something you do. It’s something that you learn to live inside of even while you already participate in it. This ‘love’ is unconditional, always present. In Paul’s attempt to try to describe this agapé (in 1 Corinthians 13), he is not describing human friendship (philia), affection of parents for children (storge), or even passionate desire (eros); he is describing what it is like to live inside of an Infinite Source—where all the boundaries change, feelings are hardly helpful at all, and all the gaps are filled in from the other side. We have to take breathing lessons and develop larger lungs to live inside of such a new and open horizon. It does not come naturally until we draw upon it many times, and then it becomes the only deep and true natural instinct. You have then returned home and can even practice the other kinds of love with much greater ability and joy.”
You’d think that since he put in parenthesis that agapé was described in 1 Cor. 13, he would have at least used the word in his special study of 1 Cor. 13, but once again he merely added to the confusion by not using agapé. So here’s how some of his comments should have been if he had used agapé as was in the original Greek: “Paul makes me realize that I might give a wonderful sermon, but if I don’t do it out of God’s agapé for the people right in front of me, it won’t be as powerful as when I’m participating in divine agapé. Faith without agapé is not true faith. When Paul tries to describe the mystery of agapé, he finally has to resort to listing almost fifteen descriptions. He talks about agapé not as simply an isolated virtue, but as the basis for all virtue. It is the underlying, generous energy that gives itself away through those living inside of agapé. When you are inside this mystery of agapé, you operate differently, and it’s not in a guarded, protective way. Paul is touching upon something that’s infinite; it can therefore include all and has an endless ability to pour itself out. In agapé, you’re operating from this foundational sense of abundance, not from scarcity or fear. There is an inherent generosity of spirit, of smile, of gesture, of initial acceptance that you immediately sense from any person who is standing inside this Flow. The most powerful, most needed, and most essential teaching is always about agapé. Agapé is our foundation and our destiny. It is where we come from and where we’re headed. As St. Paul famously says, ‘So faith, hope, and agapé remain, but the greatest of these is agapé’ (1 Cor. 13:13).”
But the most important change I need to make is in his comment about the most meaningful quote from the New Testament. So here’s what he should have written:
“As Paul says so well in Romans, ‘We can be happy right now. Our trials produce endurance, and endurance produces a stubborn hope, a hope that will not disappoint us. It is God’s agapé poured forth in our heart.’ … At the heart of this body, providing the energy that enlivens the community is ‘God’s agapé that has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 5:5).”
So I will now do him the favor of changing the following quotes as they should have appeared in his book. (In other words, I will now substitute ‘agapé’ for ‘love.’)
“We cannot afford even inner disconnection from agapé. How we live in our hearts is our real truth. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus insists that we have agapé for our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. For Jesus, prayer seems to be a matter of waiting in agapé, returning to agapé, trusting that agapé is the unceasing stream of reality.
“Your core, your deepest DNA, is divine; it is the Spirit of Agapé implanted within you by your Creator at the first moment of your creation (see Romans 5:5, 8:11, 14–16). {from (p. 185) -- the emphasis is mine}
“Agapé is at the core of all beings.
“Agapé is not just the basis on which we build everything, but it’s also the energy with which we proceed, and it’s the final goal toward which we tend.
“The beginning and end of everything is agapé. Only inside of the mystery of agapé—mutual self-emptying and infilling—can we know God. If we stay outside of that mystery, we cannot know God.
“If the blank white banner that the Risen Christ usually holds in Christian art should say anything, it should say: “Agapé will win!” Agapé is all that remains. Agapé and life are finally the same thing, and you know that for yourself once you have walked through death. Agapé has you. Agapé is you. Agapé alone, and your deep need for agapé, recognizes agapé everywhere else. Remember that you already are what you are seeking. Any fear ‘that your lack of fidelity could cancel God’s fidelity, is absurd,’ says Paul (Romans 3:3). Agapé has finally overcome fear, and your house is being rebuilt on a new and solid foundation. This foundation was always there, but it took you a long time to find. ‘It is agapé alone that lasts’ (1 Corinthians 13:13).”
