A. A lady once was shown a vision of hell and it was not at all as she expected. People in hell were all seated pretty close to each other at a long table with luscious food on their plates. Problem was the spoons they had were extra-long so to scoop up some food and feed yourself needed quite some elbow-room – which they didn’t have. They were all sad, emaciated, hungry, frustrated and even angry.
Next she was shown a vision of heaven. And to her surprise it was exactly like hell, long table, no elbow-room, great food, terribly long spoons and all. But these guys were all happy and fed and having the time of their lives. Why? Because they had discovered that with those long spoons it was easier to feed the person seated opposite you.
Philia is solidarity, community.
Now philia is done through the triple communication of love: speech, vision and touch. That is why the touch of someone who is ill or in need is far better sometimes than just giving a cheque.
Now we come to that third and last Greek word: agape which has no English equivalent.
When a new love came to this earth, the love of God who would not remain in heavenly headquarters but came down to this world, we needed a new word to describe someone who would love the unlovable. As He said, it is easy to love those who love you. But to love anti-love had never been known before. So the New Testament writers had to search about for a new word. It was used in Greek but rarely, and it had no fixed meaning. And the agapine love was therefore taken over by the New Testament writers. And this is the sacrificial love. The agape love.
Q. Any story for this one?
A. Yup!
Q. Yeeees!
A. On April 9th this year, during Palm Sunday Mass, two bombings took place in churches in Egypt that killed more than 50 people and left another 200 people injured.
The wife of one of the victims from these attacks, herself a Coptic Christian, during an interview on Egyptian television explains how she has forgiven those who murdered her husband. She also prays for God to forgive them and for them think about their actions. “May God forgive you” she said. “You’re not in your right mind.”
And she called the terrorist who bombed her husband her “son”: “My son, believe me, you’re just not in your right mind.”
And amid tears she remarked to the journalist interviewing her, “Believe me, I am not angry. He is now gone, dead. And I ask the Lord to forgive them and let them try to think. Think! Think! Believe me, if they think they will know that we didn’t do anything wrong to them. Think again – what you are doing, is it wrong or right? May God forgive you. And we also forgive you. Believe me, I forgive you. You put my husband in a place that I couldn’t have dreamed of. Believe me, I am proud of him.”
When the clip ended, the news anchor sat up straight and spoke.
“Egyptian Christians are made of steel! Egyptian Christians for hundreds of years are bearing many atrocities and disasters. The Egyptian Christian deeply loves his country. The Egyptian Christian bears everything for the sake of his nation.
And oh, how great is this amount of forgiveness you have!? If your enemy knew how much forgiveness you have for them he would not believe it. If it was my father, I could never say this! These people have so much forgiveness! This is their faith and religious conviction.”
This is agape.
Q. Waa!
21stSeptember 2017