In recent years, a noticeable phenomenon has emerged among young people: a thirst for spirituality that consumerism and materialism have failed to quench. This thirst is not temporary or superficial; It is an intense and deep need, which often manifests itself in… … Unexpected Ways Movies like “Los Domingos,” Rosalía’s new album, and Byung-Chul Han’s recent book about God, inspired by the thought of Simone Weil, are obvious examples.
However, this is not just a perception of God. Contemporary youth are not attracted to the caricature of God that we have often painted in our minds, including the minds of some Christians. This image of an all-powerful yet just, vengeful, and merciless God, who only serves to satisfy selfish interests, is unsatisfactory and problematic. This kind of divinity is not worthy of belief; From the beginning because it constitutes a source of internal and external conflicts. Reason itself leads me to reject such a God, who cannot be the true God.
On one occasion, Mother Teresa was asked what or who God is to her. His response was clear and poignant: “God is love and He loves you. We are precious to Him. He called us by name. We belong to Him. We were created in His image and likeness for great things. God is love, God is joy, God is light. God is truth.”
The Apostle John wrote in letters of fire in his first epistle: “God is love.” This statement is not merely a theological statement; It is the essence of divinity. God’s nature is determined by love. Everything around him is love. Whatever philosophical or theological approach we take in approaching God, we inevitably encounter the same incomprehensible mystery: God, the Creator of all that exists, is love. This is the greatest secret that God can reveal to us.
The main consequence of this truth is that to live means to share in God’s love. Life involves loving and being loved, giving love and receiving love. Eternity then becomes a call to eternal love. This divine love, as Benedict These are two aspects of the same loving reality.
Eros is understood as a love of possession and violence, a love that descends from above, and which manifests itself in the spiritual experiences of countless people throughout history, such as Paul of Tarsus, Augustine of Hippo, Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, the Master Eckhart, Bonaventure, Ignatius Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Blaise Pascal, J. K. Chesterton, and Paul Paul. Florensky, Charles de Foucauld, Edith Stein, Thomas Merton, Padre Pio of Petracina, Josemaria Escrivá, Harold Berman or Mother Teresa of Calcutta, among many others. On the other hand, love is self-giving love, self-giving that seeks to serve and provide the well-being of others.
Contemporary writer Simone Weil has written extensively about her spiritual experiences in her memoirs and essays. In one of her stories, she recounts a beautiful experience she had during a short trip to Assisi in 1937. The philosopher says: “There, alone, in the small 12th-century Romanesque church of Santa Maria delle Angeli, a marvel of incomparable purity, where Saint Francis had often prayed, something stronger than myself forced me, for the first time in my life, to my knees.”
Human beings, created in the image of God, are also capable of loving God with eros and love, integrating the body, which is more closely related to eros, and the spirit, which is more closely related to love. Eros without love can easily become a violent passion, a depersonalized movement seeking only its own pleasure. On the other hand, love without Eros becomes cold love, lacking emotions and feelings; It is love imposed by the will, but it does not spring from the deep beating of the heart.
Belief in a God of infinite love, who embodies both eros and love, fuels the human desire to share this transformative reality. Therefore, feeling God’s love enhances solidarity among human beings, stimulates mercy and forgiveness, and promotes respect, tolerance and compassion for others. In addition, it promotes kindness, generosity, comfort and hope. Therefore, faith in God who is love is transformative. As Unamuno, the great seeker of God, said, through faith “we receive the essence of truth,” just as “through reason its form.”
This belief in God’s love ultimately affects how people relate to themselves, to others, and to the world around them. It also affects the structure of society itself. A society which, through its complete defense of religious freedom, is open to the existence of God’s love, rests on a more solid foundation than those who profess to be agnostics or atheists or who have created a rational god, such as success, wealth, or pleasure.
If God is love, then where there is love, there is God. Therefore, a person who loves, even if he denies God with his mind and declares his non-existence to the four winds, is not in fact an atheist. He simply has not yet found God with his mind or received the gift of faith. He did not allow himself to be treated by God as a son. On the contrary, whoever distances himself to the point of rejecting love, even if he believes in God rationally and is enlightened by faith at some point, is moving away from God and closer to anger, cruelty, and hatred. This phenomenon can also be observed in families, human groups, societies and entire cultures. Wars confirm this to us.
The search for a personal God, a love, is a deep and foundational human thirst. This love not only changes individual lives, it has the power to transform entire communities, creating a more supportive, compassionate, and hopeful world. Building a society as if there were God’s love is a topic that should be on the agenda of politicians, all politicians who want to take seriously the building of a peaceful and sustainable society.