All You Need Is Love

In 1967, the theologians Lennon and McCartney pronounced their famous dogma, “All you need is love.” It sounds so simple and peaceful. Yet, as another later theologian (and Eurodance phenom) Haddaway asked in 1993, “What is love?” We use the word love to refer to a lot of different things. I “love” everything from my dog, to pizza, to my spouse, to God. Using the same word to refer to such different things has indeed created confusion.

Fortunately, in the original languages of the Bible, there is actually more than just one word to talk about all these different kinds of “love.” Today’s homily focuses on 3 of those words from the original Greek of the Bible: eros, philos, and agape. If you understand the distinctions between these three, then maybe Lennon and McCartney were right.