Every free being always desires good for themselves, something better, what people call (for example, in Ukrainian) “happiness.” Every action of a free being is done in the name of this “happiness.” But what is “happiness,” what is the fullness of bliss that a free being desires? Now stop and don’t read further; first, before continuing to read, answer yourself: what does happiness mean to you? When in your life were you happy (even for a moment, experiencing what you seek to achieve forever)? What do you aspire to achieve as the culmination of all dreams and hopes (I’ll hint: you can’t seek and desire what you don’t know-experience existentially even for a moment – what you haven’t experienced)?
If you can’t recall when you were happy (when you were in a state where you lacked nothing, you were in the “fullness” of life…), let me remind you: it was when you were in love, experiencing the feeling of love! This could have been at 10, 15, 27, 33, 48, 60, 90… 190… years old, or a bit earlier or later – when you were overshadowed by the shadow of Paradise, when you were given the experience of love!
We know love only at the distance of failure. Knowledge always comes only after tasting the fruit. In every love, the taste of Paradise and the taste of losing Paradise revive. We know love only when we become exiles from the fullness of life it gives. The lover experiences the fullness of life. The lover needs nothing, nothing at all, only the “yes” of reciprocity from the Other (beloved). And after the “yes,” even more, nothing is needed – they are happy, they have everything! The beloved needs nothing but the “yes” of reciprocity. At the slightest sign of reciprocity, immense joy arises. The taste of the fullness of life arises, which brings intoxicating bliss. Then the glance, the smile of the Other (beloved) brings the lover the whole world. A revelation explosion, in which the transformation of life is revealed, and the place of this revelation becomes the Other (beloved). Everything is wondrous, everything is new. The reciprocity of love was the first feeling of Adam and Eve on the first day of creation.
In the gaze of the beloved, I first feel what the human eye is. In tenderness, I read an unfamiliar language of touches. Every smallest gesture, the most subtle movement of the body, every barely noticeable smile is a word that you encounter for the first time and that has incredibly fascinating meaning. Everything we touch together, every beautiful thing we look at together, everything we taste becomes new and imperishable at that moment. There are no objects anymore because everything becomes presence, devotion, everything is attuned to me, exists only for me. Everything becomes a celebration. Everything takes shape and becomes real because the Other (Beloved) exists. The most insignificant and mundane becomes an unexpected gift.
When love is born, life is born. Amazed, we feel how the poverty of existence turns into the unexpected richness of life. Ordinary moments of routine are transformed into the experience of celebration because the mundane is now dressed in the reciprocity of connection. Now there is no time with its past and future, nor space – only immediate presence. The beloved becomes the face of the world; in everything, we see their image…
With the first sign of reciprocity given to us by the Other (Beloved), we invest all our natural desire for life. Without possession and without measure. We live only for the Other and thanks to the Other. We give everything and stake everything. Every guarantee, every reliability. Our obligations, our good name, our strength, and reputation. Our plans and hopes. Ready for anything, even death – for the beloved (this is the state of fullness, bliss – happiness).
The gift of love is the light with which the Lord illuminates every person who comes into the world, so they know what to seek (the meaning of life – happiness – is in Love: to love and be loved, to partake in mutual love – of the Holy Trinity). (Love is a Gift, and only a Gift! It cannot be bought, nor can it be summoned in oneself, nor begged for, nor earned… – it is a miracle of revelation-transformation, bestowed by God!). Every person experiences love to some degree of intensity (“fullness,” “madness”), but it is always the best, the most blissful of all that each person experiences-knows in their life!!! If you truthfully, sincerely look at your life and everything in it – it is truly so! (All those I helped-hinted at answering about happiness truthfully admitted that they were happy when they were in love!). No pleasure compares to the bliss experienced in love (when one is in love). So, we were blissful (happy; more precisely, considering human weakness, let’s say: the happiest) when we were in love (all other “bliss” from various pleasures are orders of magnitude lower than the bliss given by love)! Look more closely at your life and you will see this (you lived then – when you loved). It is this state of happiness-love (consciously or unconsciously) that people seek when they look for various pleasures in sex, food, drinks, drugs, various spectacles… in everything that gives pleasure (lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life), that is, they think happiness is pleasure. But this is a fatal mistake, because pleasure is not the goal, but a consequence of being in the goal. (One who has reached the “goal” (satisfied their lusts-passions) and experienced “pleasure” knows that it is not what they sought-desired, the happiness experienced “pleasure” did not give, no dreamed fullness of bliss was received, but on the contrary, only emptiness and hundredfold sufferings come after selfish “pleasure”; every realized will of ours and experienced selfish (as an end in itself) pleasure asserts us in selfishness-death, and distances us from love-life, from happiness (more on this law of spiritual life will be discussed in the next parts when we talk about the laws of spiritual (Eucharistic) life)).