The polar star of human existence

Life is the great opportunity offered to us to learn to love. We have come to this world, exclusively, to learn how to love; happiness is the consequence.

Learning to love

I call the “polar star of human existence” what I consider to be the most accurate answer to the meaning of our life:

That is why, to the famous statement of St. John of the Cross regarding sunset and love, I like to add the implicit adverb: “at sunset you will be examined only in love”.

Happiness, on the other hand, is directly and exclusively proportional to each person’s capacity to love, expressed in deeds:

We have come to this world, exclusively, to learn to love (happiness is the consequence).

The great opportunity

Life is, therefore, not so much the “test”, but rather

Life is the great opportunity offered to us to learn to love.

Negatively

The derivations of taking “the North Star” absolutely seriously (only! to learn to love) are of two types.

Negatively implies that everything that we do not do, we do not turn into love, no matter how technically perfect it may be, it remains useless or harmful.

Everything that we do not transform into love is useless or harmful.

Positively

The positive consequences are much more interesting and profitable.

Everything we have to do in this life can be summed up in two converging lines, which often intersect:

More and better

We have to love all people, each of them “beginning and end of love”.

But in an orderly manner.

The “order” is given by the proximity, not so much physical, but relational.

And since in the human being the bonds of freedom are superior to those of blood, for those of us who are married the first and most relevant “term” of our love is always – it must be! – our spouse.

Next, the rest of the family, friends, colleagues, neighbors… every human being.

The first and primary term of our love is, for married people, our spouse.

All transformed into love?

The answer seems obvious: we should do everything that is legitimate (the non-legitimate should not be done).

But not all equally.

The rest, for example, can and must be transformed into love: we have the duty to rest, whenever possible, because the people we love need us rested: for them, therefore, out of love.

And the same goes for sports, food and drink, walks… everything legitimate.

The sexuality and work are on another line: by their very nature, they are love, and when we do not perform them out of love, we denaturalize them, we prostitute them.

Sexuality and work are two exceptions… “for excess”.

Sexuality

Sexuality is a wonderful means to awaken, consolidate, develop, mature, make fruitful, and sometimes “repair” or “recover”… love… Love between a man and a woman, considered as such.

Therefore:

Precisely because of its enormous power, because of its immense capacity to perfect, by depriving it of its intrinsic relationship with love, sexuality destroys: the corruption of the optimum is lousy.

Because it is an constituting part of love, when its nature is respected, sexuality enjoys a marvelous capacity to perfect and make us happy. Exercised outside of love, it destroys.

What about our job?

It is also “very close” to love. It is, by its very nature, love: “the incognito of love,” as Grimaldi calls it.

And rightly so.

According to Aristotle, to love is “to will the good for another”.

And to want it as effectively as possible: to “build” these goods and give them to the beloved.

But working is nothing more than making goods for others (and, by the same token, loving them).

No work is justified/legitimized only by the profits it generates.

On the contrary, if we work well, by putting our heads and hearts into it,

Hence, from its real identity with love, the tremendous perfecting power of work.

And, by the same token, carried out outside of love, denatured or prostituted, it destroys and frustrates.

The more work is done, the greater the technical perfection with which this work is performed:

Because of its intrinsic relationship with love, work has an enormous power to perfect. But, realized outside of love, it undoes and frustrates.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tomás-melendo-granados-04750a234

Exit mobile version