1

Agape is usually defined as the love that Jesus had for us from the cross. Does agape contain affection for others whom the agape is directed to?

Please answer according to Catholic understanding.

dweins
  • 107
  • 2

2 Answers2

1

Does agape contain affection for others whom the agape is directed to?
Short answer: Yes(it can, but it does not seem to be required to).

Discussion
Definition: Agape (Ancient Greek: ἀγάπη) is "love: the highest form of love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God."

The Catholic teaching on Charity.

The catholic teaching is that agape/charity, is the greatest theological virtue. From the Catechism:

1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment(John 13:34). By loving his own "to the end," (John 13:1) he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." and again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:9; 12)

1824 Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the ommandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."
1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies." The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself.

The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13).

1826 "If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing." Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity." (1 Corithians, 13:13)

St Basil:

If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.

St Augustine:

Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.

On an experiential note, in the past six years I have been involved with a lot of lay retreats that place heavy emphasis on the virtue of charity, and the principle of agape as the theme of the retreats. Agape is alive and well, and being emphasized.

KorvinStarmast
  • 6,726
  • 6
  • 29
  • 42
  • I always thought agape as love without feeling, without the element of affection. How can the claim that agape does contain feeling of affection be supported? – dweins Jun 22 '16 at 21:10
  • I thought that agape was a type of love that we give to someone, even if we lack affection for that someone. For example, we might dislike somebody but we may still choose to donate our blood for that person whom we dislike - agape. – dweins Jun 22 '16 at 21:19
  • by affection I meant "fondness" or feeling of "liking", in a sense that was mentioned in storge or phileo – dweins Jun 22 '16 at 23:50
  • They are not mutually exclusive. The bible wasn't written by digital age step function thinkers. It isn't necessarily "either/or" and love does not exclude additional love by any rule. – KorvinStarmast Jun 23 '16 at 01:28
  • agape love: the highest form of love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God. Is it your feeling that God has no affection for man? – KorvinStarmast Jun 23 '16 at 01:38
  • @KorvinStarmast Does God have affection for everyone, even sinners? – Jin-Dominique Jun 23 '16 at 11:56
  • @KorvinStarmast I would like to ask the same question Jin-Dominique asked – dweins Jun 23 '16 at 13:55
  • Do you want to ask that as its own question? (I believe that has been asked here already. ) I believe that yes, God has affection for all, even sinners. See John 3:16 for one of many scriptural references to that. Just a quick note: Christians believe that we are all, generally speaking, sinners. We generally believe that God loves us. Both points are axiomatic to being Christian. – KorvinStarmast Jun 24 '16 at 16:00
  • God does not have affections, in the strict sense of the word, because affections (in the strict sense) entail a change in the subject that experiences them. That cannot happen in God. He does, however love all of His creatures (even sinners, and even the condemned), and the proof of this is that He maintains them in being (even the condemned) and gives sinners the graces they need to repent and return to union with Him. In addition, God is the author of our affections; hence our affections reflect something in God that is even more perfect and wonderful. – AthanasiusOfAlex Jun 26 '16 at 03:00
  • @AthanasiusOfAlex I have a hard time putting anything beyond God, and also have to consider that Jesus was both human and divine, and part of the trinity and thus experienced love as we do ... so in the strict sense, affection cannot be foreign to God ... and I am now trying to dance on the head of a pin with whatever angels don't mind having me stepping on their toes. – KorvinStarmast Jun 26 '16 at 13:30
  • @KorvinStarmast This question has been dealt with by philosophers and theologians before. Jesus in his human nature did (and does) have affections. (E.g., he wept, rejoiced, was angry, and so forth.) But the Divine Nature is not subject to changes of any kind. That does not mean that God is “unfeeling,“ rather that He has something better than affections—something that is the origin of our own affections. – AthanasiusOfAlex Jun 26 '16 at 15:31
  • @AthanasiusOfAlex I can get my arms wrapped around that, thanks. – KorvinStarmast Jun 28 '16 at 04:48
0

In Cardinal Levada’s glossary, charity (or love) is defined as, "The theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God." Paul tells us that love is the greatest of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13).

Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia entry on "Love" defines it as:

[A]ny strong affection, closeness, or devotion to things or persons. The Greeks distinguished four types of love: storge, philia, eros, and agape. Storge, familial love, is a word for the bond that exists between one who loves and persons, animals, and the things that surround him. It is compatible with quite a bit of taken-for-grantedness or even of hatred at times. Philia pertains to friends, freely chosen because of mutual compatibility and common values. Eros is passion, not only of a sexual nature, but also of an aesthetic or spiritual nature, for what is conceived of as supremely beautiful and desirable. Agapic love is manifested when one person has much to give to another more needy. It is generous self-donation without concern for reward. Such distinctions become especially important in discernments about marriage, because the strength of eros love may blind one to the absence of ther types of love needed to experience a good Christian bond that, with God’s grace, can endure "till death do us part."

My addendum:

Agape ~ Caritas ~ Charity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_(virtue)

Note:

Taken straight from Catholic Answers

http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/how-does-the-church-define-love

Russell
  • 75
  • 1
  • 4