Eros In The Song Of Songs

of the closed inward looking self towards its liberation of self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God"This characterization is by no means unique or even new, having its roots in the Church's mystical tradition. For example, as early as the third century, Origen, commenting on the Song of Songs, portrayed the relationship between God and the person as a union of lover and beloved - what some would describe as an erotic encounter.The soul is moved by heavenly love and longing when, having clearly beheld the beauty and the fairness of the Word of God, it falls deeply in love with His loveliness and receives from the Word Himself a certain dart and wound of love...If, then, a person can extend his

If one continues to read the works of these and other Christian writers, we find that profound desire for God leads to action for others the desire for God, eros, leads to a desire for the good of individuals or the world, agape. This message, rooted in the Church's tradition, is at the heart of Benedict's understanding of erosin Deus Caritas Est.Benedict pointed out that eros is not emphasized to any great extent in either the Old Testament or the New. Instead, agape is stressed.But he was quick to point out that the knotty connection between the two should be carefully considered. From the point of view of Deus Caritas Est, eros and agape, when perfected, are not disconnected, they are one. Both are necessary for life; they constitute the mutuality of true love, both receiving and giving.According to Benedict, as one receives love and gives it to another, the desire for (eros) is united to a desire for the good of (agape.) The more love grows, the more one wants to be present to the other eros becomes agape and enriches the experience of love. In Benedict's words, "Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift." Of course, eros and agape are perfectly united only in the Triune God, where passionate love and desire for humanity (eros) and desire for humanity's good (agape) are synonymous.Only God's love can manifest a perfect union of gracious desire for us which exists for our good; all humanity struggles with flaws, mixed motives and sinfulness that prevent us from achieving this perfect union. Despite human imperfection, however, with God's grace, we can achieve some union of eros and agape in our own lives.Benedict uses the marriage relationship to demonstrate a human realization of the union of eros and agape. The desire for marriage expresses the way eros is rooted. In Matthew 19, Jesus uses Genesis 2:24 to explain how marriage completes individuals - a man leaves father and mother to find