Extended definitions of love - Essay Example

In most cultures all over the world, love is seen to be first and foremost directed to one’s family. The family is considered the primary unit of society where every individual starts to be exposed to life’s experiences. Love in the family begins with love between spouses as husbands and wives decide to leave their respective nuclear families to unite and form a new one. As parents, they accord love and unrelentless support to the children. Mothers are revealed to express unconditional love to their offsprings.

Fathers provide financial, physical and emotional support. Children return the love by just being there to provide happiness and assistance, as needed.  The power of love that surrounds family members transcends barriers of time, space and location and is therefore considered universal and continually existing and persisting since time immemorial up to today. Love for a divine and Supreme Being reigns differently according to cultural orientation. The religious beliefs, traditions, values and practices encompass teachings of love and equal treatment for the lives and existence of others.

In the Catholic religion, for instance, love for God is taught within the first four commandments, which were summed as: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (All About Truth, par. 15). It comes before oneself, one’s family, and above all else. Regular attendance to masses and observing the sacraments attest to the love.. Love for God is manifested through following the commandments and teachings. Learning more about God is initially introduced by parents and slowly reinforced through subjects of religion and Christian values from primary education until the secondary level.

Regular attendance to masses and observing the sacraments attest to the love and devotion expected of disciples to the Catholic faith. Love for Neighbors Concurrent with teachings of the faith and one the commandments of God are to love one’s neighbor as oneself. It is manifested as the Golden Rule (Teaching Values, 2009) or the ethics of reciprocity. Loving one’s neighbors require respect for human rights and their purpose for existence. However, a more admirable love for neighbors is exemplified by people such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta who showed love, compassion and offered her life and service to those in need.

Her Missionaries of Charity was an organization created to “to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI” (The Nobel Foundation, par. 2). This love entails self-sacrifice and putting the needs of others above oneself. Mother Teresa was determined to seek for assistance in terms of providing for the physiological (food, clothing, shelter, medicines, health care) and spiritual love for the needy.

Love of this kind is exemplary and challenging as one finds the means and ways beyond one’s capabilities to ensure that the needs of others, deemed to be more relevant, are taken cared of. Love of this nature sometimes defies explanation but is rooted from the Divine love for God – unselfish, unconditional love directed to others