The Prodigality of Love, by Dr. Donald DeMarco

God is love, and He pours out His love on all His creatures.  But among all His earthly creatures, man is the best receptacle for His love.  A city has a water supply.  Whenever a person drinks from the tap, he is drinking from that source.  Similarly, whenever a person loves another, his love is drawn from the supply of Love that is consubstantial with God.  To love another, therefore, is, at the same time, to love God, however faintly.  In addition, by tapping into God’s love, we experience an overflow of love for all whom God loves.  Here is, in a word, what is meant by the “prodigality of love;”  in loving one soul, there is the potential of loving all souls.

In his book, Man and Woman, Dietrich von Hildebrand states that “love responds to God’s image (the imago Dei) in the other, seeing him in the light of that likeness to God (simulitudo Dei).”  We can love another only because God has placed lovableness in that other.  Loving another is also loving God, even though one can remain unaware of that fact.  But we cannot isolate our love for another from our love for God.  If we follow the trail of love from whichever point we find it, it will lead back to God. …

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