{"id":33841,"date":"2013-01-26T13:36:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-26T19:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=33841"},"modified":"2013-01-26T13:42:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-26T19:42:31","slug":"what-love-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/what-love-is\/","title":{"rendered":"What Love Is"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hey. Wanna try a little experiment? Search the Internet for the definition of &#8220;love&#8221; and see what you get. I tried this just recently and discovered something rather incredible. Specifically, I wanted to know what our society thinks love is. We as Catholics know that society&#8217;s understanding of love is pretty screwed-up, but I wanted to understand what exactly society understands love to be, so I searched Google Images, YouTube, looked through popular songs, and basically canvassed pop media in general &#8211; no online dictionaries, no accredited\/peer-reviewed sources. Guess what I found?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/what-love-is\/love-is\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-33843\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-33843 aligncenter\" alt=\"Ah. That clears things up.\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/love-is-227x300.jpg?resize=227%2C300\" width=\"227\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This picture, gleaned from Google Images using the keywords &#8220;love is,&#8221; seems to perfectly encompass our society&#8217;s ideas on love &#8211; namely, that <strong>our society has NO IDEA what love actually is<\/strong>. In fact, About.com specifically says <a href=\"http:\/\/honeymoons.about.com\/cs\/wordsofwisdom\/a\/whatislovequote.htm\" target=\"_blank\">it doesn&#8217;t appear to have one stable meaning<\/a>. Even Ne-Yo doesn&#8217;t give us a solid answer &#8211; and Ne-Yo knows everything about love, doesn&#8217;t he? Or does he?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"630\" height=\"355\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NhZ9-I4jFpA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And no one really knows anything about it \/ But everybody needs it \/ We can&#8217;t live without it.&#8221; Wow. It hurts my heart to see and hear all this confusion over the most essential part of life, the reason for life itself &#8211; especially since there is one voice, trumpeting and announcing the definition of love to the world, shining like a beacon in the darkness and confusion. The Catholic Church is that voice, and she calls into the night, &#8220;Come, you blind and broken, you weary and weak! Come to the Altar of Love! LOVE IS SACRIFICE!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To put it in other words that may be easier for us modern folk to understand, <strong>love is doing what is best for another regardless of cost to yourself<\/strong>. It is not an emotion. The emotions and feelings of attraction or happiness that you may get around someone are not love. They&#8217;re not necessarily a bad thing &#8211; they&#8217;re just not love. If love is doing what is best for that person, then it can be done regardless of how you feel about them. It is a decision you must make, not an emotion you must obey.<\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t &#8220;fall into&#8221; or &#8220;fall out of&#8221; love, either. In fact, if you take a look at those phrases &#8211; &#8220;fall in love&#8221; and &#8220;fall out of love&#8221; &#8211; you notice something interesting about what they say about love. These phrases necessarily imply that love is something insubstantial, like a hole or the sky. They betray a poor understanding of the fact that love is not only a solid thing, but it is in fact the most Solid Thing there is, even more solid and real than we are.<\/p>\n<p>No, love is not insubstantial, nor is it undefined. It has been clearly defined by the most famous Scripture verse in the world, John 3:16: &#8220;<strong>F<a name=\"51003016\"><\/a>or God so loved the world that he gave\u00a0his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For God so loved the world that He did what was best for her, regardless of cost to Himself.<\/p>\n<p>It is time for us Catholics to stop the madness. We must take up the banner of Love and charge into battle. We must proclaim the sacrificial \u00a0nature of Love from the rooftops and the street corners. And when we are asked to show our proof, our reason for believing that Love is dying to oneself to allow others to live, we must be ready and willing to reveal the True Image of Love through our own actions.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a tall order, my friends, and one we cannot fill alone, and certainly not without stumbling or failing at times. But you know and I know that the heart picture at the beginning of this post is missing something. Namely, it is missing this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?attachment_id=33849\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-33849\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-33849\" alt=\"sacred-heart-of-jesus7\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/sacred-heart-of-jesus7-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey. Wanna try a little experiment? Search the Internet for the definition of &#8220;love&#8221; and see what you get. I tried this just recently and discovered something rather incredible. Specifically, I wanted to know what our society thinks love is. We as Catholics know that society&#8217;s understanding of love is pretty screwed-up, but I wanted&#8230;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/what-love-is\/\">[Read&nbsp;More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4,91,154],"tags":[215,330,193,598],"class_list":{"0":"post-33841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog","7":"category-young-adult","8":"category-youth","9":"tag-bible","10":"tag-jesus","11":"tag-love","12":"tag-theology","13":"entry","14":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22269,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/thrive-adult-education-nights\/","url_meta":{"origin":33841,"position":0},"title":"Thrive &#8211; Adult Education Nights","author":"Diocese of Austin","date":"August 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite seemingly endless debates and legislation on sex education, teenage pregnancy rates and the spread of STDs doesn\u2019t seem to be getting any better.\u00a0 As a society, this is causing us to completely freak out about the future of the individual lives of these students as well as the future\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Faith&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ThriveTX.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39256,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/04\/west-tx-how-to-help-our-brothers-and-sisters\/","url_meta":{"origin":33841,"position":1},"title":"West, Tx: How to Help our Brothers and Sisters","author":"Rita Suva","date":"April 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"By now, pretty much everyone around the nation, and especially those in Texas and Austin have heard about the Fertilizer Plant Explosion in West, Texas. What many people may not know is that West, Tx is part of the Diocese of Austin. Our brothers and sisters in West, Texas are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;World and News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"World and News","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pray for West","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/534812_4749094174709_996603474_n-300x246.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32719,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/top-5-reasons-to-be-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":33841,"position":2},"title":"My Top 5 Reasons to be Married","author":"Cristina Almanza","date":"January 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"No One Wants to Get Married Anymore. Look at what our culture sees as entertaining. I know for women, it seems fun to buy clothes from certain stores, not being anchored down by a man, and having the freedom to see whoever you would like. Being independent and successful are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Marriage and Love&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Marriage and Love","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/marriage-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"GreatGrandparents","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/GreatGrandparents-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":494764,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/philosophy-catholicism-everyday-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":33841,"position":3},"title":"Philosophy in Catholicism and Everyday Life","author":"Zachery Algaze\u200b","date":"October 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Modern Catholicism has roots all the way back to when Jesus Christ was alive, but the ideas and values of Catholicism originated long before Jesus himself. Plato, one of the first Greek philosophers, believed in two separate worlds known as the world of being and the world of becoming. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Faith&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Socrates-Platro-Aristotle-School-of-Athens.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Socrates-Platro-Aristotle-School-of-Athens.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Socrates-Platro-Aristotle-School-of-Athens.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40389,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/06\/chaos-at-the-capitol\/","url_meta":{"origin":33841,"position":4},"title":"Chaos at the Capitol","author":"Laurelin Ontai","date":"June 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. What a challenging week for Catholics and Christians. 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