Page 75 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 21

Fr. López is the Provost and Professor of Systema-
�c Theology at the Pon�fical John Paul II Ins�tute
for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic
University of America, Washington, D.C.

Selec�on from Gi� and the Unity of Being. Euge-
ne, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014, pp. 63–68.

Antonio López,
F.S.C.B.
(Washington, D.C)

Chris�an Love is Both Agape and Eros

Through Chris�an revela�on, God reveals him- ess, unity, good, truth, beauty, and live to the
self as a mystery of love. God not only gives other.
crea�on to itself; he loves it and does so to the
utmost. This understanding of God as absolute The second aspect that love unfolds is the per-
love fulfills the revela�on of God as being sonality of the Godhead. God is not only the
(Exod 14:4; John 8:28) and transforms the fullness of being and goodness in the objec�ve
Greek understanding of the Good. There is of sense. He is superabundant being, goodness,
course a sense in which the Good and love are wisdom, and life because he is also a personal
synonymous. Love too, as revealed by Jesus being who exists as an infinite rela�on of love
Christ (1 John 4:8 and 16), regards the very es- in which one has always already given himself
sence of God. However, they do not coincide over to the other two completely. Due to the
fully. Let us note three aspects of what love un- inseparability of love and logos in God, divine
folds of the nature of God. revela�on does not lead to an understanding
of the concept of "person" as marked by a ran-
First, the iden�fica�on of love with the divine dom, arbitrary will, but rather as a mystery of
[being](esse) permits a vision of love as wit- dialogue and cons�tu�ve rela�on with an-
nessing to the [transcendental character](tran- other. Personhood, in light of revela�on, is re-
scendentality) of the transcendental proper- cognized as the perfec�on of being, first in God
�es of being (one, true, good, and beauty), rat- and analogically in the human being. God's
her than as a simple synonym for goodness. selfcommunica�ng goodness always exists as a
Love grants a dynamic unity and intensifica�on communion of persons. The eternal communi-
to the co-extensiveness of being, unity, truth, ca�on of his own goodness (Deus Trinitas) is,
good, and beauty. In his being absolute love, analogically speaking, a loving, ever-greater,
God is one, true, beau�ful, and living. This eternal encounter of the divine persons.
transcendental absoluteness can be seen in
the self-revela�on of himself to himself as the Third, the rela�on between love and person
eternal communica�on of the totality of onen- also means that God's communica�on of his

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