I Shall Not Hide the Talent
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. [. . .] I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God’s will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness. It is like hiding the talent in a napkin . . . Christ did not teach and suffer that we might become, even in the natural loves, more careful of our happiness.C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
C.S. Lewis thought that to show this giving-of-ourselves to the other was very much in accordance with God’s will, unlike the “self-invested” and “self-protective” “lovelessness.” “It is like hiding the talent”, he said. He further said that only those who agape God Himself are able to agape their fellow man and that agape can come from the awakening in man toward God Himself, a “supernatural” Appreciative-Love, which is a gift, and all a gift which should be most desired by all.[1] A similar idea was observed by Kendzierski, who agrees that agape is a gift of God, as we cannot agape on our own (perhaps, because agape is from God) and therefore we need to ask God for it.[2] By giving-of-ourselves to the others, we are thinking about and practicing the kind of giving that comes voluntarily, readily and with a firm delight.[3] Think about it, agape from its own nature of giving cannot be forced on us, nor can we force it on others, as it is a conscious decision we make and an action we choose to carry out. If this force of willingness to give is present within one’s heart, a person will not be moved by the contrary motion, but rather one will practically and literally give oneself, one’s resources, and one’s time to the other.[4]
Lewis said: “It is probably impossible to love a human being too much.”[5] Agape might lead us to suffering[6], as it has led Christ to suffer for all human kind. But agape calls for that risk to “love” another human being with many attitudes, positive and negative ones; another human being like me, who might be stubborn or prideful, and to agape such a person might be very difficult at times. And yet, we forget that there is something in each one of us, that is “ugly,” full of negative attitudes and cannot be naturally loveable. At the same time, just like the other people with attitudes and pride, we also need to be “loved” through and despite the “ugly” and least attractive parts of our personalities; we all need to give-of-ourselves and be given-of-others, through the appearance of our sinful unattractiveness.[7] Agape seeks the other in its center and is divine enough to see the other as God sees him. This leads to unimaginable (by the standards of this world) acts of giving and gentleness toward that person.[8] It is that real and true agape of God that motivates us to high thoughts of others and to even think them better than ourselves.[9] Every time we feed a stranger or clothe the needy, we do it for Christ and are giving-of-ourselves to God Himself, and whether we know it or not, that is the true Gift-Love, directly from God, working within us, which comes only through the grace of God.[10] It is in this agape where the worthy and the unworthy can live together in a harmony of peace and they will both continue to seek opportunities to give-of-themselves to those around them.[11]
Copyright © 2007 by Dorota Krzyzaniak
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[1] Lewis, Loves, 140.
[2] Kendzierski, 30.
[3] Ibid., 28.
[4] Kendzierski, 104.
[5] Lewis, Loves, 122.
[6] Suffering here does not imply that God wants you to suffer for Him, or be in pain for Him. It means that you may have to make choices which will cause you to give of yourself so much, that might make your life not so comfortable, or rather “self-centered” anymore. Suffer, because your own will, must be submitted to the will of God who is agape and who wants you to serve one another.
[7] Lewis, Loves, 133.
[8] Tillich, 117.
[9] Edwards, 8.
[10] Lewis, Loves, 129.
[11] Morris, 128.
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