We are often confronted with the question, "What makes lust different from Love?". I'm talking about romantic Love here. The automatic answer would be something like, "Lust is a mere strong desire for physical gratification, and Love is something transcendent."

Something transcendent. That's a bit imprecise.

Love is transcendent. How is it transcendent? What does transcendence even mean?

Transcendence -- Excellence, perfection, supremacy ... Beyond the limits of experience.

Love is when you take out the physical gratification of sex and carnal affection, and it still is Love. Love is when the accidents change, and it still is Love because of the unchanging substance.

But the very thing that separates Love from lust is the use of reason. Reasoning that makes us beings transcendent.

Love, above all things, is a choice that we make freely. A choice that is made using reason. It is not a uncontrollable urge, that's lust. Lust is incontinence, Love is not.

We are often confronted with the question, "What makes lust different from Love?". I'm talking about romantic Love here. The automatic answer would be something like, "Lust is a mere strong desire for physical gratification, and Love is something transcendent."

Something transcendent. That's a bit imprecise.

Love is transcendent. How is it transcendent? What does transcendence even mean?

Transcendence -- Excellence, perfection, supremacy ... Beyond the limits of experience.

Love is when you take out the physical gratification of sex and carnal affection, and it still is Love. Love is when the accidents change, and it still is Love because of the unchanging substance.

But the very thing that separates Love from lust is the use of reason. Reasoning that makes us beings transcendent.

Love, above all things, is a choice that we make freely. A choice that is made using reason. It is not a uncontrollable urge, that's lust. Lust is incontinence, Love is not.

March 2008

January 2009

June 2009