Human Factors - Talking About love — YouTube from the CEC Library

Speaking about love requires understanding the simplest things in life. It is necessary to have sensitivity in order to be and to do, as well as to know how to relate to oneself in a productive way. Most people act on reactive, primitive, and childish emotional impulses without realizing it. When we do not realize it, we interpret everything the wrong way. Love, in its essence, is a linear, happy energy without barriers. However, we often speak about love in a distorted way, full of excuses and contradictions, such as "I love you" followed by anger or hurt.

People say they love objects or animals without understanding the true meaning of love, because they have no self-awareness. To speak about love, one must have continuity, a well-defined goal, such as evolving and being better. Everything around us can be used to grow, as long as it is done with care and goodwill, without harming others. Inevitably, we may hurt someone without realizing it, thinking that we are improving. Loving is a state of being, not something that is decreed.

I remember a striking episode when I was about 16 years old, walking with my brother on São Bento Street in downtown São Paulo. It was cold, and he gave his sweater to a beggar without the man asking for it. When I questioned him, he answered that he thought the beggar was colder. That gesture was a lesson in love. Today, my brother is an honest priest, devoted to doing good and guiding people. Perhaps he does not even know the impact of that gesture on me, but it was a significant moment. Expressing love in moments like that makes us love. Saying "I love" only makes sense when we really are love. Sporadic gestures of love, followed by boasting, lose their value. But when one acts continuously with love, one can become a priest and, perhaps, who knows, a priest who understands well what love is and perhaps is love, devoting one's life to goodness and genuine happiness.

Love is continuity, understanding, flexibility, knowing how to accept a "yes" and a "no." It is detachment, speaking without emotional charges, not walking hand in hand with anger or hurt, and not being compulsive. To understand love, one must walk a long path. I am making an effort and I hope to have time to become love, because that will bring an indescribable spiritual liberation. Being love is what is really worthwhile, but it requires work. In spirituality, our behavior must be coherent with love, which includes everything.