Capacity for Love

The Divine Dilemma in Creating the Capacity for Love

Now, we may return to the divine dilemma with which we began. Given that God can get into dilemmas because of the finitude of His creation, it should not be surprising that God cannot create a creature with the capacity to own its own love (to initiate a loving action anew) without simultaneously creating that creature with the choice (capacity) for unlove (with the consequences of human suffering). If God wants to create a truly loving creature (beyond a mere marionette), He will have to create the very possibility of unlove, and the very possibility of human suffering. Human beings took care of the rest. In their God-given autonomy and freedom, they seized upon the possibility of unlove, and so human suffering entered the world.

We cannot be angry with God for creating the possibility of suffering, for we, in fact, made it actual. Moreover, the reason He created the possibility of suffering was to make us “beloveds with the capacity to own our own love”; with the freedom and autonomy to originate love anew; with the capacity to love originatively as He loves. As implied in UNIT J, this incredibly important capacity to love is our happiness, our creativity, our eternal future, and our highest calling. It therefore seems to me that this precious gift of love is worth the price of suffering – even tragic suffering. I believe that God made the right choice, because I wish not only for myself, but for the whole of humanity, a status beyond that of a marionette – a status commensurate with the very love of God.