What is Love?

What is Love?regarded the Samaritans as a people to themselves, in spite of an obviously

What is love? Love can only be shown or revealed when we comfort those in sorrow. All other feelings called love are actually dopamine releases. The back bone of God's plan is suffering. Suffering is necessary to experience love. Love means to comfort those who suffer. No suffering, no opportunity to experience love.

Give this some deep thought. Love and suffering can't be separated.

2 Cor 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 1:4 who (who is referring to Jesus) comforts us in all our affliction, so that

we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

How did Jesus love us? The answer is found in the above verse when Saint Paul says "who comforts us in all our affliction". 2 Cor (1:4) How did Jesus comfort us in all our afflictions? Jesus "tasted death" by experiencing the total sum of all sorrows. This included the suicidal depressions of all men who failed their Final Tests. This massive amount of sorrow was experienced by Jesus when He was hanging from the Cross at noon to 3:00 PM on Good Friday.

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What is Love?

Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the Angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He (Jesus) might taste death for every one.

"Tasting death" means that Jesus experienced the suicidal depressions of every soul that failed their Final Tests. Jesus was tempted with suicidal depression because he felt the massive mountain of depression. We must study and contemplate Jesus Passion. The reason why we do this is so "we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God".2

Cor (1:4)

The 144,000 will be like stars in the night sky to comfort us as we walk through the "valley of death"; this will occur at our Final Tests. Our salvation will come from our appreciation of Jesus "tasting death". (Salvation means to escape the

suicidal depressions that will happen to all of us at our Final Tests.) Do we appreciate how Jesus experienced the sorrows of every soul that has ever lived? Understand the warning and be not like the damned who have no appreciation for Jesus Passion. Jesus "tasted death" and the damned will not care. The question must be asked, how do we learn to appreciate Jesus Passion? We must study His Passion and comfort others who are in sorrow. In other words, we must love others in the way Jesus loved us.Jn 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 13:35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Let's review how Jesus loved us. Jesus loved us by "tasting death". He experienced the suicidal emotions of the damned. If we appreciate how Jesus experienced the sorrows of every person, we must show our appre-ciation by comforting others who are suffering. If we repeat again and again our ability to comfort those who are suffering, we will come to realize the value of our actions and actually feel the emotion of love. This emotion is uncreated because love is the emotion found in God. An example of created emotions are the seven deadly emotions. (Arrogance, envy, anger, spiritual laziness, lust, excessive wealth and pleasure.)

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What is Love?

Let's combine the verses below to prove this definition of "love". (Love means to comfort those who are suffering.) In the Gospel of John, Jesus says if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. Saint Peter reveals in his Epistle how we can stop sinning.Jn 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.Pet 4:1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

By suffering in the flesh we are told, by Peter, we will cease sinning. If we stop sinning, we will keep His command-ments. In other words (By combining the verses above.) love means to suffer in the flesh. There will be protesters called protestants who will say it not possible to obey God's commandments. That we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Rom (3:23) Such people will never talk about how Jesus called us to be perfect.Mt 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

5:47 And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 5:48 You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The question is this, how hard is it to become perfect? Or how hard is it to obey God's commandments? And finally, how hard is it to love Jesus and suffer in the flesh? The answer on how to accomplish all the above questions is through a "journey". This journey pertains to our souls (memory, understanding and heart.) Reading one lesson on perfection will not make us perfect. But rather a life long journey of using our memories, understandings and hearts will allow us to move closer to perfection. This "journey" will be discussed in another lesson.

Our "journey" is difficult because Jesus took upon all our sorrows without us experiencing His compassion directly. In fact, up to now, no one even knew Jesus "tasted death" by experiencing the total sorrows of mankind. This makes it impossible to understand "suffer in the flesh" as Peter recommends. "Suffer in the flesh" requires we know that Jesus was tempted with suicidal depression because He experienced the sorrows of mankind. Repeating again, it's a difficult task to appreciate Jesus compassion for us when we do not have direct experience of His compassion.

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What is Love?

Love has two parts:

1) To comfort those who are suffering like feeding the hungry or helping the sick.

2) To offer the sorrowful passion of Jesus to the Father in order to plead on behalf of sinners. This is called suffering in the flesh.

The following are ways to suffer in the flesh.

1) The Mass2) The Stations of the Cross.3) Chaplet of Divine Mercy (Saint Faustina)4) Rosary5) Chapters 1 and 2 on this website.

The above can be called graces from God. These graces train us to "suffer in the flesh." Repeating again, "suffer in the flesh" is to offer Jesus Passion to the Father to have mercy on sinners. We need the three powers of our soul, memory, understanding and heart to "suffer in the flesh". Our journey or goal is to learn to appreciate Jesus passion.

Jesus said the following: Jn 15:13 Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down His life for His friends.

Another way to say "lay down His life" is to say "tasted death". This verse is speaking about Jesus and how He took upon Himself the sorrows of all men. We can't experience another man's sorrows

like Jesus did; however we can intercede on their behalf by offering the sorrows of Jesus to the Father. Or we can comfort those who are suffering with charitable acts of mercy like feeding the poor.

The Bible uses the word "love" hundreds of times. In the Book of Corinthians, saint Paul defines love by writing.1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 13:5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.13:8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 13:9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13:13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If we make others suffer, we do not know or understand love. That is why Paul wrote as he did in the above verses. Paul

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What is Love?

is writing on how not to make others suffer.

Again it must be said, our purpose on earth is to be on a journey using our soul (memory, understanding and heart.) The purpose of our journey is to learn and appreciate Jesus passion. We can only know love in two different ways. We can "suffer in the flesh" by offering Jesus most sorrowful passion. Or we can comfort those who are suffering.

Questions

1) Love and suffering can't be separated. Explain why this is true.

2) Jesus "tasted death", what does this mean?

3) Salvation means to escape the _______ _________ that will happen to all of us at our Final Tests.

4) The damned will have no _________ for Jesus Passion.

5) Love is an uncreated emotion. Name seven created emotions?

6) Which Apostle tells us how to stop sinning? Since Jesus suffered in the flesh, if we think about His Passion and suffer with Him by offering His passion to the Father to have mercy on mankind, this is called by Peter "suffer in the _____".

7) We are on earth because we are being tested. In this test, we must make a "journey". There are three parts to this journey, name all three.

8) God created every man with a soul. God expects us to do what with our souls?

9) What are the two parts of love?

10) We need grace in order to "suffer in the flesh". Our trainer called grace teaches us to offer Jesus ______ to the Father to have ______ on ______.

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