‘But the greatest of these is love’ (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Humans are conceived in a physical union that involves the giving away of enormous amounts of physical and spiritual energy. Kindness, patience, tenderness, confidence, understanding, encouragement, care, and inspiration are exchanged in the sexual union. It is an exceedingly lavish and beneficent event that brings about the birth of a child.

When the child is born all its senses are concentrated on its own survival. It demands to be given warmth, food and protection. It has no duties. It is the object of other people's gifts and services. As the child grows, it must learn to move from a state of total dependence on love, to a state of being able to give love to others. A high level of maturity is achieved when a person develops the capacity to do for others without expecting a reciprocal response. One might describe such a transition as an escape from bondage to self, to the freedom of love. This is nothing less than a law of life. A single cell, left to itself will degenerate and die. In order to bring into existence another life, that cell must find another cell and share some of itself with it. In so doing it will prolong its own existence. This very law was enacted by Jesus, and by his practice of it, we are saved.