Agapé love is totally selfless. It is unconditional love. Agapé love rises above Philo love and Eros love. It’s when a person gives their love to another person even if this act does not benefit her/him in any way. Whether the love given is returned or not, the person continues to love the other without any self-benefit.
There are two types of Agapé love. There is human Agapé love and Divine Agapé love.
Almost every human being has experienced the human form of Agapé love, but the same is not true regarding Divine Agapé love. But make no mistake. Whether or not you believe you have experienced Agapé love, it is present in our lives.
A prime example of human Agapé love is the love between a parent and their child. In most circumstances, a parent continues to love their child no matter what their child does. You can also see this type of love in marriages. When a husband or wife says things to hurt their spouse, the other does not respond in a destructive way, but continues to be supportive, compassionate and pray for them.
The same goes for siblings. They can curse you, say they hate you, etc., but you still love them, all the while praying for them and forgiving them. It’s the same case when the parents are much older and can no longer take care of themselves. The child (or children) takes care of them, much the same way the parents took care of children when they were young.
Divine Agapé love is very similar the human kind. But in Divine Agapé, most of us will never experience a physical presence of God or The Divine. Our love of the Divine is dependent upon faith. Through this faith we do get to be in the Presence of the Divine in different ways. It could be through the human form of Agapé, it could be prayer, or it could be meditation. These are a few ways to be in the Presence of Agapé love.
I hope you notice I did not use the word “experience” when speaking of Agapé love. We must remember we do not look for anything in return. Today, in meditation and, sometimes, even in prayer, people are looking for results/experiences.
We pray because in prayer we are in communion with God. God wants us to commune with Her/Him. The same goes for meditation; it is a form of communication with the Divine. We communicate with the Divine because of our love for the Him.
Yes, the Divine is always showering us with Her/His mercy, but in Divine Agapé love we are not asking for anything in return.
So there you have it. Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared an overview of the three types of love: Eros love, which will only last as long as you have an emotional or sexual contact; Philo love, which is only going to last as long as the person gives you love in return; and Agapé love, which will always last, because it expects nothing in return and has no conditions attached.
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