Faith Hope Love by Josef Pieper

Author:Josef Pieper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, Philosophy, Catholicism, Christianity
ISBN: 9780898706239
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2011-07-08T00:00:00+00:00

III

BUT THEN, if a human being already exists anyhow, could we not say that it does not matter whether a lover finds this fact wonderful and affirms it? Does it really add or take away anything that someone says, “It’s good that you exist”?

It is clear that in asking this question, which sounds so extremely “realistic”, we are basically asking what is the “function” of love within the whole of existence; what is it supposed to do and accomplish in the world. It is one and the same question that we have to answer at this point. But in order to answer this it admittedly does not suffice to analyze, no matter how precisely, the lover’s intention and what is “really” willed and meant by the one who feels loving concern. We must move across to the other shore, that is, we must examine the matter from the point of view of the person who happens to be loved. What is really taking place on his side? Soberly considered, what does it mean for a person that another turns to him and says (or thinks, or experiences), “It’s good that you exist”?

On this matter let me first give the floor to Jean Paul Sartre, a writer from whom we should have expected a radically different answer from the one he actually gives. According to the “theory” he has systematically developed, every human being is in principle alien to every other, who by looking at him threatens to steal the world from him; everyone is a danger to everyone else’s existence, a potential executioner. But fortunately, the creative artist in Sartre, or simply the brilliant observer and describer of human reality, repeatedly rises up against merely intellectual theses. And the artist in him, altogether unconcerned about his own “philosophy”, will then say things like this: “This is the basis for the joy of love . . .: we feel that our existence is justified.”1 As may be seen, that is not so very far from the above-mentioned notions of “giving existence” and “conferring the right to exist.” Here, however, the matter is seen, not from the lover’s point of view, but from that of the beloved. Obviously, then, it does not suffice us simply to exist; we can do that “anyhow”. What matters to us, beyond mere existence, is the explicit confirmation: It is good that you exist; how wonderful that you are! In other words, what we need over and above sheer existence is: to be loved by another person. That is an astonishing fact when we consider it closely. Being created by God actually does not suffice, it would seem; the fact of creation needs continuation and perfection by the creative power of human love.

But this seemingly astonishing fact is repeatedly confirmed by the most palpable experience, of the kind that everyone has day after day. We say that a person “blossoms” when undergoing the experience of being loved; that he becomes wholly himself for the first time; that a “new life” is beginning for him—and so forth.

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