1 John 4:7 | "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."
Agape is considered the most powerful out of all the loves discussed in the Bible; it is unconditional, merciful, and compassionate. It is God's love.
When I first started at the University of the Pacific, I immediately looked for the Catholic Community on campus. Moving as a freshman from home is crazy and it's scary. A lot of what I knew and considered home at the time was in youth groups and in the people who are close to me. Naturally, I figured I would find my home on campus in the same places I found it previously.
I think a lot about why I was so adamant about finding a home on campus and especially trying to find it in the Catholic Community. The first time I walked through the doors of Morris Chapel, I remember it also being the first time I felt at home on campus. Was it because it was familiar? Was the atmosphere just that breathtaking? What I realize now is that it was because I felt like I was in the middle of God’s love.
Agape love is so powerful because it can only be given by God. We learn about love through Him, and even share the love He gave us because He is the source. In a previous blog post in Storytelling with Jesus, we talked about how praying might sometimes feel like we're talking to a wall or that God isn’t listening. However, He answers our prayers again and again not through words, but through actions. That is what makes His love so powerful, He shows up every single time.
How does He show up? God chooses us over and over again. He chooses to be merciful and compassionate. He chooses to heal and forgive. He chooses to die, rather than spend eternity without us. . He is the best teacher because He doesn’t just call us to love, He shows us how to love; “Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). He serves as our role model so that we can be guided on our journey with love. When this Godly love becomes active in our lives, it is called charity.
It makes sense as to why I found home in the Church and in His love. Despite being scared and nervous in my new surroundings, I still had the only tool I needed. Little did I know,I would meet so many new friends, and even build a family at Newman. All of these relationships are rooted in the same love I found home in, and all these people are all loved by the same God that loves me. He taught us all how to love, and provided the community I could experience His love through and mirror that love to.
It's true when they say that Agape is a powerful love because it comes from the source of all love, branching out to many other types of love.
We have the capacity for agape if we first receive it from God and learn His ways. . 1 John 4:7 reads: “Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” To know God is to know love. Let’s be unafraid of being loved so unconditionally by Him because when we know His love we can extend that love to others.