I am in the process of writing my thesis on the vocation to love according to Dietrich von Hildebrand & Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II). These are the first of many paragraphs sure to compile the entire work, and so in celebration of finally writing something, I’ve decided to post just these few snippets. Enjoy.
The on-going experience of Love…
Love is never an isolated experience. It cannot be one singular moment whereby two people are caught up in a passionate experience and then are able to “move on.” This is contrary to the very nature of love, because love is, at the very root, an experience of discovery. One can clearly not discover one moment and not be discovering the next. Rather, one embarks on the journey of discovery and having set out, is now committed to continuing that journey for the rest of their life. Love, then, as a journey of discovery, means that one has set out to come to discover the beloved.
There is a goal set when one embarks on this journey of love, then – a goal satisfied each and every time the lover recognizes, yet again, the unique distinctness of the beloved. One loves not out of necessity or to fulfill a desire or because they are obligated to do so. No, one loves because they are drawn to this other person and hope to continue reveling in the delight of the other’s very existence. The goal, simply, is to discover all there is to know about the beloved; the lover wants to know, to see the glory that is this other person’s very existence, to be permitted to plumb the depths of another’s soul and see who they truly are and what gives them the life they so gloriously live.
Love cannot be isolated, then, for if it were, one would never plumb the depths as much as they would want to. They’d only be skimming the surface of an infinitely deep ocean, merely snorkeling rather than truly diving in to come to understand what lies beneath the simple top. If love were merely a “one time thing” experienced singularly without any “follow up” or “return,” then each and every person would be dissatisfied, unhappy, lonely, and above all frustrated at life itself.
When love is the expansive discovery that it is meant to be – when it is the journey of discovery of another that leads one to a true and complete understanding of the very self of the beloved – then we rejoice. We blush and giggle and spend hours swooning over the very thought of the other person, for they have awakened in us a delight that cannot be contained, but rather pours forth in everything we do and say. It brings us unbridled joy, this journey of discovery that is “loving another”, and it is a joy we each seek to know…a joy we each want to experience. And so we set out, our hearts open, our souls attuned to the souls of those we notice, and look for the moment when we can set out on this journey and seek to discover the beauty of another.
More to come when inspiration hits…
-Katie
