“…What you tell me about in the nights. That is not love. That is only passion and lust. When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.”
“I don’t love.”
“You will. I know you will. Then you will be happy.”
“I’m happy. I’ve always been happy.”
“It is another thing. You cannot know about it unless you have it.”
~Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms
The young priest explains his conception of love and of love’s benefits to the American soldier. The soldier proclaims that he doesn’t need such love. “I’ve always been happy.”
The priest counters: You only think you’ve been happy because you’ve never known the true happiness of love.
The soldier asks if he can find such love with a woman.
The priest answers that he does not know. The priest has never loved a woman. He has only loved God.
The priest does not know. But I do.
No, dear soldier. You cannot find such love with a woman–just as I cannot find such love with a man.
You cannot find a love that will never disappoint. You cannot find a love that will always satisfy. You cannot find a love that promises forever happiness in any mere man or woman.
You can only find such love in Christ.
“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
~Romans 5:7-11
It is a whole new type of happiness, a rejoicing unknown by those who have only known the pleasures of this earth or the love of a mere human. It is a love that served us while we were enemies, a love that incites in us adoration.
You will be happy when you love Him. Because when you love Him, it will be be because He first loved you. You will be happy when you love Him, because then you will know His love.
Then and only then will you know the happiness of love. “It is another thing. You cannot know about it unless you have it.”
Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.