Agape and Hesed-Ahava. David L. Goicoechea

kind of mathematician.

      As he would count the cards and remember with laws of addition

      and subtraction what had been played and what had not he

      greatly appreciated a good memory well trained by mathematics.

      He made sure that we each learned rapid-fire addition,

      subtraction, multiplication, and division but I just never

      seemed to have the talent for building on that with higher math.

      However, when you think that all things can be understood in

      terms of mathematics then you come to a new appreciation

      for the complexity and the simplicity of each thing, that is, one

      being with two parts of this and five parts of that, and so on.

      If you are a monk with a sublimated eros and thus a new

      agapeic affection for all persons, places, and things then you

      can see how training in the various kinds of math

      could bring about a greater affection for all the orderly detail.

      The world is charged with the grandeur of God and it does

      flame out like shining from shook foil, and a mathematician

      can better love all the wondrous complexity of that simplicity.

      Our math teachers Father Method and Father Hilary had a vision

      that they imparted to whomever could share in their delight.

      And even though I seemed to be limited in my capacity to

      follow all the nuances with them, their affection for me, which

      I tested, still taught me. And the math I could learn definitely

      helped me to better love the world of Euclid and the geometricians.

      That those earth measures and those who knew trigonometry

      were privileged to see certain laws of the universe impressed

      me and though I could not easily get it I at least learned

      enough to trust in the order of all, even with a kind of faith.

      I,3.7 Nourishing Agapeic Eros with Music

      As we practiced singing our scales and learned about the history

      of the growth from plainchant in its various kinds to polyphony

      we came to see that music is all based on mathematical measuring

      just as is science and we learned about whole, half, and quarter notes.

      Could you say that music is math transformed into lovely sound?

      Some of the eighteen masses that we sang on different feast days

      were especially sweet and sorrowful songs, like Stabat Mater, and

      still had a beautiful sweetness about them so that as mathematics

      could build up affection so music could build up a lovely eros.

      We not only studied music in class every year but it was

      a big part of our prayer life since each day we sang high mass.

      The Benedictines not only sang high mass each day but they sang

      the eight parts of the divine office, for music was a major part

      of their life of “Ora et Labora” and its beauty let them grow in love.

      For Christmas in my second year my mother gave me the three-volume

      set of The Works of St. John of the Cross and during my third

      year at meditation at the end of each morning I studied intently

      The Dark Night of the Soul and I took many pages of detailed notes.

      I condensed them down and talked about that beautiful poetry

      with Father Ambrose and I came to see a metrical music in poetry.

      That poetry together with the Gregorian chant formed me further

      in the agape of a sublimated eros for it sang:

      On a Dark Night enkindled in love with yearning

      oh happy chance, I went forth

      my house being now at rest.

      Once the internal and external senses of our interior castle

      are at rest Jesus can recline his face upon our flowery

      breasts, kept wholly for himself alone. I came to see

      how celibacy can develop a loving femininity even in the male.

      From then on deep in the anima of my animus I would never

      think of having sex but always of making love even in celibacy.

      I,3.8 Nourishing Agapeic Friendship with Science

      In our science classes we learned how physics and biology were

      still parts of philosophy before modern times and how Aristotle not only

      wrote the first book on physics but was also the father of biology.

      In defining genus, species, difference, property, and accident he worked

      out a classification for the various species of plants and animals.

      In his psychology he distinguished scientifically plant, animal, and

      human souls and went on to give proof for the immortal human soul.

      We learned how Gregor Mendel, a monk himself, worked out the laws

      of genetics and how Copernicus, a Catholic priest, came up with

      the Copernican revolution that encouraged Galileo and his experiments.

      Father Mark had us make a biology book and Bill Wiegand,

      a brilliant student from Idaho who was a year ahead of me,

      let me use his notebook that he made the year before and I can

      remember even tracing some of his drawings and copying much.

      Learning the scientific method was a big part of seminary schooling

      and we learned how to put forth an hypothesis and to try to

      prove it mathematically, logically, and with experimentation.

      The five intellectual virtues according to Aristotle are science,

      art, intuitive reason, practical wisdom, and theoretical wisdom.

      Our schooling was meant to teach us many kinds of knowledge

      so that our intuitions could guide in science and help us

      to find a fruitful hypothesis as Mendel and Copernicus did.

      Intuitive reason and the scientific search that could grow out of it

      aided us even in getting a kind of certitude in our faith, hope, and love.

      Aristotle defined science as a certain knowledge of things through

      causes and our liberal education helped us to intuit probabilities

      so that with a practical wisdom we could integrate our lives

      as a universal whole within the big picture seen by wisdom.

      For Aristotle friendship was a unity of one soul in two bodies

      based upon common values but once we saw Jesus’ agapeic love

      for all, even enemies, we knew that we should be friendly to all.

      I,3.9 Nourishing Agapeic