11. Religion Of Love

(Inspiration from Albert Einstein’s letter to his daughter, Lieserl)

Poet Nguyen Cong Tru asked but could not answer: “What is love?”

Xuan Dieu also asked similarly: “How to explain love”?

Then he explained:

“What’s the point of an afternoon

  It occupies my soul with the pale sunlight,

  With light clouds, gentle wind…”

Han Mac Tu is closer to reality:

“The moon and stars are immersed in the mist.

  Like receiving a poetic idea from afar…

  To hear the willow leaves shivering in the wind

  And to see heaven interpret love.”

The reason we let poets define love is because only music and poetry are the most moving expression of love.Philosophers and scientists just mess up the work.

Albert Einstein in a letter to his daughter, Lieserl, said “Love is the greatest energy in the world”.

He instructed his daughter to publicize the letter only as long as possible after his death. Because he knew that the theory of relativity, even with scientific bases and formula, was strongly disputable and not accepted by many people. How about the idea “love is energy” that he only had faith in its presence and limitless force, which governs entire universe.

What science today only vaguely understands, Saint John firmly stated 2,000 years ago, “God is love” (1 Jn 4:7).

Religion from Heaven, One-God religion and Christianity are religions of love: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

God is “the energy that appears everywhere, affects everyone, and even appears behind inexplicable phenomena on earth” (Einstein letter to daughter Lieserl).

Albert Einstein was Jewish. I think he must have been familiar with the Old Testament. The things he discovered were, in fact, confirmed in the Bible from ancient times.

According to Einstein:

• “Love is the light that illuminates the hearts of those who know how to give and receive it” (Letter to Daughter Lieserl).

John, at the beginning of his gospel, also wrote:

“The Word was the true light, the light that came into the world and enlightened everyone” (Jn 1:9).

And “I am the light of the world, and whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ (Jn 8:12).

• “Love is a force of attraction, by which people are drawn to each other.” (Letter to Daughter Lieserl)

This is the extremely strong “affinity” between the Creator and the creature.

It is recorded in Genesis that “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26).

According to Saint Augustine, that explains why human beings are always anxious, in their nature, always longing to return to the source from which they were born: “You have made us for you, and our hearts are broken until it rests in Him” (Confessions).

Jesus also prayed to the Father: “so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you” (Jn 17:21).   Unity is the essence of love. Gravity leads to unity.

Einstein also asserted:

• “Love is power: because it sums up all the best we have” (Letter to Daughter Lieserl).

Like Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, India’s master of nonviolent struggle, also said: “The greatest power that mankind has in their hands is love”.

In the gospel of Jesus: love conquers death, death is the ultimate manifestation of evil. The risen Lord triumphs over death, “Death has no power over him” (Rom 4:7). There is nothing stronger than love that has conquered death.

• Love is life: “If humanity wants to survive, if we want to find the meaning of life, if we want to protect the world and all other species, love is the first and only answer” (Letter to Daughter Lieserl).

Love brings life and growth: “I have come that the sheep may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10), “I am the bread of life… whoever eats it will have eternal life” (Jn 6, 10:51), which is living water: “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst … the water giving eternal life” (Jn 4:14).

Many quotes can be taken from the bible, to prove that love is associated with life and growth.

I added something that Albert Einstein did not mention in the letter.

• A crazy love: This craziness does not mean paranoid mind, but the madness of the sage, of the extreme passionate person: “There is no greater love than that of a man who lays down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).

The madness of the Supreme Mind: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:22-23).

Christianity, the religion of love, the “crazy” religion of the cross.

That is the truth, an obvious truth hidden in the paradoxes.

We cannot use our finitude to measure God’s infinity. But thanks to the revelation that comes from above, we see parts of the reality of the spirit world.

“A child has been born to us” (Is 9:1).

“This cup is the new covenant, made with my blood, which is shed for you” (Lk 22:20). The rich God came down to be a plebeian. He volunteered to die naked on the cross to atone for our sins.

All for love

Love is a voluntary response, an invitation, a union of two persons.

John writes in his first letter: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10).

Jesus asked Peter many times: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter replied impatiently: “Yes, you know that I love you” (John 21:15-22).

And you and I, the counterpart of God’s sublime love. How long will we let Him languish?