February: The Love Month

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love you to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach”. . . So wrote Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her soon-to-be husband Robert Browning, published in 1850.

There are many types of love. Romantic love, or Eros (in Greek) is the object of St. Valentine’s Day and the one most often associated with February 14th. The roots of the religious tradition are varied but generally speaking there once was a religious leader in the third century A.D., who was martyred for ministering to the people of Rome. Legend has it that he healed the blind daughter of one of the jailers. Just before his execution, he wrote her a letter which he signed, “From Your Valentine.” Over the centuries his name and this date became associated with the traditions we all know very well, mostly in countries heavily influenced by Catholocisim, Protestantism, and Orthodox, though the Orthodox peoples generally celebrate in July.

Another type of love is called “storge.” It is the natural affection between parent and child and other family members.

A third type is called “philia.” This is the root of the name of the city of Philadelphia, capitol of Pennsylvania. It is also known as the “City of Brotherly Love.” It was named by William Penn, a Quaker who founded the state of Pennsylvania as a refuge for religious refuges and was meant to be a place of religious freedom and strongly influenced the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights which asserts “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Religious freedom is a high form of civil philia. It is also the same type of brotherly love shown between David and Jonathan in the Old Testament.

The Greeks had a fourth type of love which the called “agape.” They believed this to by the highest form of love – that of God for human beings and human beings for God.”

Christianity has another word “charity.” It seems to encompass all forms of love. The Christian apostle Paul wrote of this in one of my favorite passages of scripture found in First Corinthians 13. He writes:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

“Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:1-13).

There are many quiet examples of Charity in our Alaskan community: The fathers and mothers who work long hours raising their children in light and truth; Teachers in public and private schools, home-based educators, Sunday Schools, community youth programs; Those who feed the poor, tend the sick, and spend countless hours sorting donations at thrift stores; Those who rescue animals; Those who rescue people from fires and accidents, and those who keep the peace in their law enforcement duties; Those who serve in the military or who have served or who will serve.

Sometimes there are humans who make a decision to give up their own lives so that others might live. They are an honored breed and show the strength of their hearts. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 5:13).

The ultimate form of love is a type that we as humans can never fully understand but are the universal recipients of, that of God for his children when he sent Jesus Christ to pay the price for our imperfections and sins against His Law which is found in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

In the end, it all comes down these words spoken by Jesus the Christ, “These things I command you, that ye love one another” (John 5:17).

Karen is member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experiencing life as a wife, mother, grandmother, writer, genealogy junkie, and political activist.