Mother Goose in love
Part 4: The excellence of love
The greatest promoters of love that the world has ever known were not named Anthony and Cleopatra, Paris and Helen, Lancelot and Guinevere, Romeo and Juliet, King Pepin and Queen Bertha, or even Yuri Zhivago and his girlfriend Lara. Love’s greatest promoter was a man who was not known for his amorous exploits or for his sexual expertise. He considered his celibacy as much as a gift from God as was marriage to other people.
He was a scholar who was born in a little town in ancient Turkey, named “Tarsus.” His name was Saul. He was one of the early persecutors of Christian followers of Jesus, who, according to Biblical tradition, was on the road to Damascus one day, to continue his persecutions. Suddenly he was engulfed by a bright light, and he heard a voice speaking to him and asking him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me…I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”
Then something like scales fell from his eyes and he became one of the greatest promoters of “The Way,” as early Christians were called. He became known as “Paul of Tarsus” and also an avid follower of Jesus. Paul promoted his teaching among the Seven Church of Asia Minor, which is now present day Turkey. He preached the Risen Christ in the Churches of Ephesus, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Thyatira, Smyrna and Pergamum, as well as Patmos and in Rome. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul tried to define “love” in 14 different ways.
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Prophecies will eventually cease, tongues will become silent, and knowledge will pass away for our knowledge is partial and our prophesying is partial; but when we
encounter what is perfect, that which is imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. However, when I became a man, I put all childish ways aside. At the present time we see indistinctly, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. My knowledge is only partial now; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Thus here are three things that endure: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.”
Most of us simply define love as a deep affection that we have for someone or something. The ancient Greeks, who considered themselves masters of love, defined it in various ways: Agape love was unconditional, selfless love. Eros love was romantic, carnal Love. Philios is fraternal love and False love is love of self or platonic.
Mother Goose love, nonetheless, is an innocent love. It seeks and believes in the pure life that does not discriminate or judge. It is a life that is open to fantasy and to the impossible. It is a love without limits. It invites children of all ages to enter into a world of dreams and of paternal security. The love of Mother Goose is more real than reality, and it is open to all minds anywhere in the world.