Dating - Knights of Columbus, Supreme Council

never disregard Jesus’ divinity, one must not exclude His
humanity either. If we are to love like Christ, we are to take the
body and the soul seriously and inseparably. If we do not turn the
other cheek and pray for the living and the dead we are doomed,
but we are doomed if we do not give to those who need food,
drink, shelter, and clothes.
And here is the peculiar twist of Christianity. These are the
doctrines about God, but since God is love, they are also the
doctrines of love. We sometimes miss the awkwardness of this
identification. While legitimate, perhaps we too readily identify
God with our anthropomorphized versions of Him. If God is
love, love itself, then in loving spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends,
friends, pets, objects, enemies, in genuinely loving something,
anything, we actually experience God, albeit partially and
imperfectly. And since God is love and love is relational, it is only
in and through relationships, relationships that encompass
forgiveness and repentance, that embrace the whole person, body
and soul, do we come to know God as He truly is.
While there are other ways to learn Christian love, dating can
and should teach us this kind of love. Paschal? If paschal love is
a pattern of life-death-new life, dating is an excellent practice for
this. Every dating relationship ends. Every one of them dies.
They either break up or end in marriage. As with the end of a life,
those involved in a dating relationship that ends must figure out
“like the saints and the poets, how to do something creative with
the idea of death” to quote Dorothy Sayers. 11
Incarnate? Dating is amphibious, half friendship, half marriage.
Two people are getting to know each other, hanging out together,
discussing what happened and what matters. They are friends,
even if nascent friends, but they are also more so. Everyone knows
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