05/2025 - Phil
There are some who may be inclined to believe that it is reducible to nothing more than a chemical process–an activation of oxytocin or dopamine or a reduction of pain felt within the cranial confines. They contend that our enjoyment of these processes is a mere arbitrary byproduct of evolutionary development, insisting that the phenomenon holds no deeper significance than this transient chemistry which, while we inhabit this earthly sphere, we might as well indulge.
I confess the vastness of this subject surpasses the narrow confines of my personal acquaintance and experience. But I dwell on certain clues that may better approximate the nature of what we call love.
Surely, while love is not wholly unrelated from those chemical reactions, it cannot, with any degree of intellectually honesty be entirely reduced to them. If on the contrary that premise were true, what would be a greater act of love than to directly drip those pleasurable sensations into the mind by means of psychoactive substances? Could it be asserted that a parent demonstrates love by exclusively furnishing a child with confections and sugar water? I find it absurdly false that mere gratification of one’s addiction to such chemicals constitutes an act of love.
Indeed, love can possess no profound significance whatsoever unless one accepts the existence of fundamental absolutes. One cannot, without this grounding in absolute authority, deconstruct the teachings of Jesus into mere Confucian abstractions without spoiling its essence. While the full nature of good and evil may elude our perfect grasp, it is unequivocally necessary to at least assume there is an absolute order. This assumption is not unreasonable. To the skeptics I pose the following questions: Does Man not, at the very least, comply fully with the laws of physics (though our understanding of them remains imperfect)? Is our ability to exist and procreate not necessarily dependent on the complex procedures involved in replicating DNA? What is the process of evolution itself but a judgement Man must live with concerning that which endures and that which perishes? What is more evident than the obvious distinctions between Man and a great extent of nature? At the weakest estimation, man is by his very nature distinct from a mere protozoan blob, and to diminish his rich experience to the random whizzing of atomic particles is to willfully disregard the meaningfulness of these distinctions. Yes, if there are no absolutes let us treat one another deservedly as chemical goo.
Without truth, love becomes blind, a caricature of itself–without love, truth becomes cruel, thus squandering its very essence. Pope Benedict XVI
Love and truth are, in fact, deeply intertwined, standing not in contradiction but in union. To sever one from the other is to squander the character of both. A parent loves a child not without regard for what is ultimately good for the child nor by unorganized, dispassionate statement of cold facts, but by guiding them upward, closer to the apprehension of truth. A child truly loves a parent through an appreciation for the sacrifices necessary for sustenance and life, and through admiration of superior faculties. I believe love between God and Man bears a similar character. The Almighty’s gift to humanity is the provision of a path towards closer communion with Him, and our love for God is like that of a child’s humility and trust. Thus also the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves is tied to that divine journey towards God.