Wide Open To Transcendent Love
Only this evening have I realized the Christian term “agape” (pronounced agápē), which is a term for the highest form of love, and the word “agape” (əˈɡeɪp) are spelled the same. As one word derives from Greek and the other from Old Norse, it appears to be a coincidence. And yet when I think of the two separate meanings, I can’t help think the one helps to clarify the other.
I have been aware of the Christian term “agape” for some time, but it was always one of those terms that never really connected with me. Religion, like history, tends to bury essence in favor of rote learning, so that the definition I was given did precious little to inspire me. But then I heard Martin Luther King Jr. explain what the word meant, what the word meant to him, and it began to take on a powerful meaning for me.
Unconditional love. Again, a term I’d come across before. And while it had some degree of power in its aspirational sense, I did not really feel it. Unconditional love was something I wanted to feel. I dreamed of the day when I might meet that special person or fall in love with a cause to a degree where I would pledge myself to her or it unconditionally. But the unconditional love of which MLK spoke was not a response provoked by an external object but a state of being that came from within. I love. I love, because the act of loving exceeds any other act in which I could hope to engage. I love, because it is the highest and most positive way in which I can interact with the outside world. I love, regardless of the object, regardless of how my love is received by those towards whom I direct my love. I love, because love is the most powerful and transformative force in the universe.
To hear Dr. King speak of agape is to hear from one who was intent on delving into the heart of mystery in order to find true meaning. Like an archeologist who is bent on unearthing a rare treasure, a pearl without price. Dr. King left himself open to a truth, a meaning, a beauty, a joy that most of us fear opening up to, for fear that at the end of our search we might find nothing at all. Just as most of us do not abandon our more comfortable life in search of ancient tombs or buried treasure.
Greater than his search for meaning, however, Dr. King was dedicated to practicing a life of meaning. He was no mere academic, content to hone his intellectual refinement while living within an ivory tower. No, he was intent on finding knowledge so that he might apply it to the world in which he lived. He sought wisdom so that he might fashion the world according to Wisdom’s direction. He permitted himself to be used by wisdom, by love, by truth, perhaps by something greater still than all of these, in order to make the world in which he lived more in line with the world which he knew must be.
Which leads me to the other word “agape”, the one with which we are more familiar. When we think of the word, we think of someone with their mouth wide open. Indeed, the definition of “agape” is “wide open”. The secondary definition is “in a state of wonder or amazement”. A further definition is “expectant, or eager”.
These definitions seem to explain the state in which one should be in order to experience and participate in a transcendent love. One must be wide open to the world, exposing oneself completely and fearlessly, trusting in love. Too often do we keep ourselves guarded from the world, protecting ourselves from the pain others can cause us rather than acknowledging the power that love working through us can have upon even those who wish to consider us their enemy.
To participate in agape, to become conscious of it, is to feel oneself “in a state of wonder or amazement”. We seldom permit ourselves to believe in something so powerful or so pure, that when we open up to it, we experience wonder and amazement. We have transcended our small understanding of the world and find ourselves in the grip of something truly awesome.
In order to participate in agape, we must overcome the fear that has previously had us living the small life of an individual rather than allowing ourselves to blend with a larger, universal community. We must find the courage to abandon a love of self and that small set of people we call our tribe in order to embrace a love of all. If we are able to do this, we must somehow sense something greater is out there, is possible. If we wish to experience and live agape, therefore, we must be “expectant, or eager” for something we have not yet experienced and yet somehow sense.
I would like to tell you I have some small understanding of this higher love. It really is not that difficult a thing to grasp if one leaves oneself open to some of the many speeches of Dr. King. One need not be a saint, a martyr, or an ascetic to get a sense of something that will leave you wanting more, you only have to see the influence of agape in someone such as him. You need only leave yourself “wide open” to that sense of “eagerness or expectancy” that will lead you to “a state of wonder and amazement”.
