An Invitation to Love

The image of this Love has captured the imagination of the world.    It has inspired solitary souls to search for their better halves, and it has been romanticized by literature, which refers to it fondly as its “favorite child”.   It is a natural Love blessed by God, as certain as He made Eve (“flesh from my flesh, bones from my bones”) from Adam…

It is always a beautiful thing to see two souls coming together.    A keen observer could trace it back to a chance meeting, as they sow the seeds of affection.   With bated breath, he could watch this affection slowly evolve to a deeper need of commitment, until, as if their hearts’ will had been hidden from them until the last moment, they realize that somehow, they belonged together.

The image of this Love has captured the imagination of the world.    It has inspired solitary souls to search for their better halves, and it has been romanticized by literature, which refers to it fondly as its “favorite child”.   Over the generations, however, Eros has been worshipped, reviled, corrupted and discredited.   Those who have only begun to experience Love, seeking their answers, find the wrong ones from those who, in their own experiences, have not found its answers either, and resorted to guesswork.   Often, this Love is misunderstood, and variedly seen as the spark of the emotion, or the physical attraction, or “something deeply profound”.

Even more unfortunate, those who have attained the full experience of Love, observing as Eros is twisted and shaped into a form that is no longer distinguishable to them, dismiss it as a superficial, unnecessary Love.   It is understandable that, still heady from the effect of finally realizing Love’s object—which is akin to being in God’s presence—everything from one’s line of sight might seem insignificant, and small.   But Eros should not be belittled.   It is a natural Love blessed by God, as certain as He made Eve (“flesh from my flesh, bones from my bones”) from Adam.

In fact, one could still see the visible signs of Eros’ divine origin, if one looked closely enough:

“What is the chance in Heaven, that you’ll find your way to me?”

Serendipity, by its simplest definition, is the chance meeting of two souls.   Popularized by movies, it has been used to characterize the “divine signature” of Eros.    One such movie, whose title is taken from the word itself, is worthy of note here:  two people, from completely different worlds, briefly meet at a random place.   Later, compelled by some inner urge, they go on their separate journeys to find each other.   In modern times, the idea of this has been belittled as a “fantasy”, and a product of superstition.   They believe that there is no such thing as “destined souls”.

Destiny exists.   To understand this, one must go through a brief, though somewhat analysis.   In our world alone, we live in a seemingly infinitesimal series of variables, caused by our collective and individual actions.   These actions, large or small, not only elicit a reaction, but a chain reaction.   Thus, a decision by a man from Chicago, though by several degrees, will affect the fates of six militiamen pending execution in Nigeria.   Though this might prove that thus, everyone is connected with everyone else, there is more: the variables that come from these overlapping actions and chain reactions are so vast as to be incomprehensible to the human mind.   With this limitation in thought, the products of these reactions have been generally dismissed as “unpredictable” and “unknown”, and collectively grouped into the future.

As we have said, however, Man is unable to comprehend these seemingly limitless series of algorithms.   So, though two souls may come together, he cannot be absolutely certain that this, indeed is his destined soul—even worse, that she, indeed is his only destined soul.   Many, over the generations, have studied the patterns of Life, and the course of these variables.  Their predictions are not a manner of the supernatural, but of complex mathematical equations, observed over time.

“She blinded me with science!”

I wrote in a previous blog of my analysis of attraction through Chemistry.  I was inspired by a National Geographic experiment: a Man was made to smells of the shirts of a randomly selected number of women, and those whose smells that seemed appealing to him, end up coming from those he seemed to get along well with.   I combined this study with another theory proposed in the movie Say it isn’t so.   According to that, a bull is attracted to a cow with a distinct biological signature, or smell.   When that smell is obscured by covering the cow in the bull’s own odor, the bull would no longer be attracted.

I surmised, that one can relate that to relationships—a Man is attracted to a woman because of a distinct, unique smell different from his own.   When, however, they come together, these smells mix, and become a distinct new compound, which explains why sometimes the Man seeks another, unique signature.   So, one surmises that to keep the “mystery” in a relationship, one has to constantly reinvent oneself, and change their biological signature (though Nature helps; our signature evolves in time).

So now, it would seem that all of human relationships can be explained in science.   There is no “divine hand” visible in them.   Algorithms can explain chance, and biology can explain “attraction”.   But science can be made to prove that the divine hand does exist, through the synthesis of both.

In our world, there are millions of variables.   It has been said that God “works in our choices”.   It’s true.  God is the ultimate causality of thoughts generated in our head; we are left with choosing whether to accept these ideas, or not.    He also indirectly affects our decisions through nature: rain, for example, will compel a decision to seek shelter.   Extreme heat, studies have pointed, have compelled a more aggressive character in people (this is what the Babylonians, in their studies of the stars and tides, studied in relation to the reactions of people’s characters).   And who alone, can comprehend this multitude of variables, and thus shape it?

As for biology, every individual has a biological signature unique among others.   And, that though some smells or “elements” can coalesce perfectly, others will reject each other.   Thus, through God’s subtle inspiration, two souls come together, find their signatures match, and decide to go deeper in their relationship.

Eros is a product of our inherent nature.   Christ celebrates this Love, and even blesses such a union in Cana; however, this Love is not its ultimate object.   Eros, in itself is incomplete.   It is only a spark of divine inspiration, an invitation to Love.    Love is much more complex, and has two more distinct degrees.   So, yes, celebrate Love, but don’t dwell too much in its joy.   One must work and suffer it.

To this, I will turn to in the next post.