Authentic Love

Love is one of the most used words. Everywhere people speak of love: television, advertising, novels and magazines, songs. All of us want love and we seek it. Nothing interests us without love. Money, honor, career, family are empty without love. Love is the thing of greatest value, because we can give up everything except love. Disappointment in love is the offense that hurts us the most. Sometimes we say: “If she (he) had wounded me physically, I would have forgiven, but this disappointment I will never forgive.” Some are so frustrated and disappointed that they say love does not exist. Why these disappointments in love, when we all want to be loved? Because generally, people let themselves be deceived by false loves. Mirages, like those in the desert. What seems to be love but in fact is not. Those who lose their way in the desert, after many hours or days of walking and thirst, catch sight in the distance of oases: places containing water. When they reach these spots, they realize they were mistaken.

How many people have been mistaken, believing that sex was true love! Many still continue to let themselves be fooled. How many musicians flaunt themselves or sing naked! We must discourage this kind of behavior. Do not buy such records or CDs, do not even dance to such music: especially if you are a Christian. Moreover, many have also believed that in marriage they would find love. But there too, how many disappointments. The husband sometimes unfaithful, the wife busy with her market or her family more than with her husband. That is why, whether single or married, many cannot say that they have loved only one person. When someone is thirsty, he seeks to drink. If your heart has not yet found true love, it will always seek to be loved, to draw attention. It would be an illusion to believe that a human being could fill your heart.

We were created for God. It is for this reason that as long as we do not accept him into our life, or as long as we do not accept him fully, we always remain unsatisfied. Sometimes others think us happy. We laugh. But how many masks, for when we are alone, we feel a great emptiness within us. This emptiness is God’s place in our hearts. His chair, which at that moment is perhaps empty. Many may wonder why we speak so much about love. Precisely, it is because the very definition of God is love (1 Jn 4:8-10). God is Love. We are his children. He alone truly loves us. On Sunday, May 24, we will celebrate Pentecost. The coming, or the anniversary of the coming, of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray to him. Let us ask him to teach us to pray, to love. Let us tell God once more to make himself known to us. This evening again, in our room, in our own words, let us speak to God in the silence. Let us call him Papa, for God is authentic love.

Henri Bayemi