One really knows something when it is in the head, the heart, and the soul. And, how joyful that knowledge can be for a person who comes to know in the depths of being a truth.
Once in awhile, one has an epiphany which illuminates a mystery of faith one may have not appropriated.
In the last 24 hours, I have had an epiphany---a long unwinding of light, like strings of bright pearls, on the real meaning of freedom.
God gave us free will, which sets us apart from the animals, and is part of how we are made in His Image and Likeness.
We are called, especially those of us who are baptised, to know, to love, to serve God in this world and to be happy with Him in the next, which is the old, but true catechism answer as to why we were created.
Epiphany moment: only free love is real love. Love which is manipulated or a reward, or given reluctantly, or coerced, is not love. Love which has ANY expectations is not true love.
Love must be the purest act of freedom we can give to another person. And, to God...
I love, but do not expect any love in return. Can you love someone with joy, and let them not love you?
This is what God wants from us. Love without expectations, ... love in the Dark Night.
God loved us like this on Calvary. Sacrificial love expects nothing back. And, it is still freely given, even when one knows it will not be returned. That is real freedom.
But, here is the key. If one loves freely. one MUST allow the other freedom NOT to love in return; that is true sacrificial love-the highest love of all. That type of real love brings joy. This love is the love of God.
That is what God wants of us-free love. And, this is not the same as the sacrificial love of a mother for her child. That is a love tied by flesh and blood.
This free love is Bridal Love. I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and the harts of the, fields, that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she please. Song of Songs, 2:7 DR