God is love

Today, we continue to read 1 John 4:7-12.
John affirms once again that God is love ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν (1 John 4:8). John knows God's love because God sent Jesus, His only Son, to this world so that we may live (forever) through him
ζήσωμεν διʼ αὐτοῦ  (1 John 4:9).
We will be surprised to find that in John's view, this love, however is not bi-directional, not mutual! God loves us by sending Jesus to be the expiation of our sins (1 John 4:10) but we are not able to love Him. What we can do is to love one another. We owe one another to loveἡμεῖς ὀφείλομεν ἀλλήλους ἀγαπᾶν (1 John 4:11).
Many psychologists have written about love. Love involves at least 2 parties. It is a relationship. All the psychologists have come to nearly the same conclusion that LOVE involves the sharing of happiness. We must feel good about love. Otherwise, we will not have the reinforcement to continue this relationship of love.
Likewise, love is essential for our growth and development. Without love, we remain immature, narcissistic and forever naive. We began our life from love, nourished at the receiving end of love. Now that we have grown up, it is our turn to give our love to the others. To a certain extent, we may probably reserve some love for ourselves. We mind our own business, are dedicated in our career and play our games regardless of people around us. But sooner or later, we will find that it is more joyful for our love to be appreciated and very painful for our favours to be rejected.
However, Christian love goes beyond this in its emphasis on the emptying of oneself. This is set in the example of Jesus. Paul sang a hymn to Jesus' humility in Philippians 2:3-11. Instead of holding fast to his divinity, Jesus emptied himself and took up our flesh and died for our sins. Through this emptying of divinity, God is able to permeate all creation. This is love, God's love, par excellence.
For us sinful humanity, emptying oneself is not just being heroic. It is also beneficial for our well-being because through letting loose, we give up not just our best parts, but also our weaknesses, naivety and stupidity as well.  Without these sinfulnesses and obstacles, God's love can permeate through us more easily. God abides in us ὁ θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν μένει (1 John 4:12). Consequently, when God lives in us, we may be able to know Him. This is the wisdom highest possible. That is why perfect charity is wisdom.
The love between a man and his wife has been employed by St. Paul, as an image to describe the love between Christ and his church. In marriage, husbands and wives empty themselves bodily, psychologically, financially etc. to each other. They are not selfish with their bodies, with their emotions and with their money etc. Oh God, how wonderful that we are able to find someone on whom we can invest all ourselves. Of course, some people are less fortunate that they have to empty themselves on cats and dogs only. Others are worse off if they cannot relate to human beings and can only find satisfaction in loving inanimate objects. Poor men! They can only empty themselves on those lifeless objects which cannot give back in return.
If all goes well, nuptial love is an even better image than parental love. We are husbands and wives before we are fathers and mothers. Moreover, husbands and wives are able to empty themselves to each other nearly immediately. Parents can do the same to their children but it will take decades before the children, if they honour their parents, are grown up enough to empty themselves to their parents in return. Mary, my daughter's godmother, has done exactly this. Some children may never do so, either because they build up their own families too soon or their parents have already died.
Of course, this is from the perspective of man. God sees Himself (and the Israelites see their God) first and foremost, a father before He sees Himself a husband in the Old Testament. This father image never disappears from the New Testament. So, we are always indebted to God, our Father. I wonder how people in the Old Testament were able to love God as a husband. Probably, in ancient time when wives were supposed to be submissive, the image was appropriate.
Nowadays, when women's social status and autonomy have been more widely recognized, it is more difficult to put believers and their God on equal footing, as husbands and wives. Moreover, in a homophobic milieu, it is hard for male believers to swallow the idea of the church being the Bride of Christ. The Church can't be exclusively female! Shall we look for other images to better describe the relationship between the Church and her Redeemer in this age? What a mystery!

It is now 11:45 p.m. Hong Kong time. I enjoyed an evening with my wife, going to a recital by the renowned Chinese pianist Lang Lang (郎朗) in the Hong Kong Coliseum. It has been decades since the birth of our children. Wulstan and Saturnia promised to babysit Symphorian who seemed to understand that his parents were going out on a date. He didn't cling unnecessarily to his mum when she left home to meet me.
We ate our heart out in a food plaza before the concert. We had Korean rock-bowl noodle, Thai oyster omelette, Shanghai dumplings in sour-chilli soup etc. Of course, we couldn't finish them all.
The concert started with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture which finished with a firework display. Then came Lang Lang on the stage to play Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in 3 movements. When intermission came at 9:20p.m., we had to leave for Tuen Mun. We shared our views on the orchestra, Lang Lang's superb skills and the merits and demerits of holding a recital in the Coliseum. It was a lovely and enriching evening.

My God, help me empty myself more, be humbler and more generous so that I may know you more. I believe in You. Help me believe more that I may understand better the mystery of the Church. Amen.