THE LOVE CALLED AGAPE

The love called agape is sacrificial love. This is the love that we preach and we try to inculcate, not eros or just philia alone, because the philia love will come out of this divine love. Here is an example of how it was practiced. The wife of a friend of mine was one night called downstairs. Her husband was talking to a Nazi. They were Jews who became Christians, Lutherans. And the husband said to the Nazi, “How many Jews have you killed in the last six weeks?”  “About 25,000,” he replied.  “In what places?” He mentioned the name of cities. “In this particular village, how many Jews did you kill?”  “I killed all the Jews,” he replied.  “Do you feel any remorse?’  “'No.”   'Do you ever think of asking God for pardon?”  “There isn't any such thing in all the world as forgiveness.  There isn't any such thing as God.”  My friend said: “Let us see. My wife is asleep upstairs. She has not heard this conversation. I shall call her down.” She dressed and came down and he said: “Sabina, this is the man who killed your father and your mother and your three brothers and two sisters.”   She looked at him and then threw her arms around his neck and kissed him and said: “God forgives you. I forgive you.” And the Nazi threw himself on his knees before the husband and asked him to pray to God for forgiveness. This was the divine forgiving love.