The Philippines is a very romantic place and the Filipinos are a very amorous people. We have at least seven words for ‘love’: ibig, irog, mahal, sinta, liyag, suyo, giliw. All of them, however, express love as eros. Eros is the romantic and erotic kind of love. It is a burning desire that ardently seeks the other for one’s pleasure and satisfaction. It is the romantic feeling that gives one butterflies in the stomach, lumps in the throat, makes the heart beat faster and the knees a bit wobbly. It is a heady feeling of falling in love. It drives the very young and is often fueled by their raging hormones. Eros is about taking and receiving and finds its fulfillment in release.
Philos is a more serene and sustained kind of love. It is the kind of love that cares for the children born out of eros. It is the same kind of love that children have for their parents and the people who have brought them into this world. Philos is also expressed through the knowledge and wisdom parents and elders hand down to their children and the youth. This is love of wisdom as in philos sophia. Love in the family is later expanded to include others as friends. True friendship is also philos. Philos is about caring for others, not out of need but more out of gratitude and genuine appreciation and unselfish affection.
Agape is the most sublime kind of love. It brings man closest to the divine. It is also about taking and receiving, about caring and sharing, and more. It is the kind of love that would forgive one’s enemies and do good to those who hate us. It is the kind of love that would lay down his life for his friends. Agape is about turning the other cheek, carrying the cross, making life fuller and more abundant. It is loving as Christ has loved us.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:31-33,34-35