You all know how excited I get when we talk about “love.” For me, it’s the way I experience the holy and how I see it act in the world. And of course, different cultures around the world often note that there are different kinds of love and have different words for it. The most common are words coined by the Catholic church: Philia, Eros, and Agape.
Philia is meant to express the type of love between friends or from a parent to a child – it’s a non-sexual form of love; Eros is meant to express not only love that comes with sexual attraction, but also creativity in all its forms; agape is a kind of divine love – one that is given to all of humankind, that connects us all together.
Some might call it a compassionate kind of love, but it’s also the love that mostly drives work for justice. According to the Catholic church, it is the “highest” form of love and the one that we should all aspire to. But I disagree. Love is love. It doesn’t matter how it shows up, in my opinion. It is what connects us together – love for children, our spouse, our friends, for the world, the environment, our neighbor. It’s all love.
So remember: Love is love, however you express it. So go out in the world and love it!
With love,
Rev. Sian
Rev. Sian Wiltshire is Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church's minister. Please feel free to reach out and say hello! She can be reached by email, revsian@ocuuc.org, or by church phone at (714) 556-2882 (x302).