The central idea of this book is that the key to a successful, happy life is the fullest possible development of our unlimited potential for love.

The love of which we speak goes beyond mere affection, desire, or passion. There are many kinds of love—God, our neighbor, the world, and ourselves. Real love, however, is always the result of a free decision by a rational being who makes a commitment to the service of another, or others, predicated not on personal attachment alone but on a feeling of respect, sympathetic understanding, solicitude, and a willingness to sacrifice something of oneself for the good of the other.

At one time or another in our life we will have given or received parental, brotherly, or spousal love. To understand real love we need to recall the examples of mutual, unselfish love that we have experienced or observed. The prime example of love is the relationship that existed between Jesus Christ and his Heavenly Father as seen in the four Gospel accounts in the Bible. The life of Jesus also vividly exemplified the extremes to which true love is willing to go for the sake of the beloved—namely, suffering and death. To understand the mystery of love, we must study and reflect upon how much God loves us, how much Jesus loved his Heavenly Father, and how much Jesus loves us.

Much of our energy for love often remains untapped. What is worse, sometimes the human energy used for loving is misdirected and becomes an instrument of violence and hatred. There are a number of reasons why we never actualize our full capability for love. This book attempts to discuss some of them and to suggest ways and means to encourage the release of more human energy in the positive direction of love rather than in the negative direction of antagonistic, disruptive, destructive action.

Modern depth psychology has uncovered mankind’s immense powers for growth in love and maturity. Having discovered and somewhat clarified the laws and means by which love operates within human life, mankind now has the responsibility to actualize more fully the human potential for love. This obligation is all the greater when we realize that when the human energies for love are used improperly, the likelihood is that they will be used to attain the opposite of the goals of love. Instead of taking us more speedily toward our proper destiny of unity, they will, if neglected, lead us farther away from our goal.

A mature person may be defined as one who has fully actualized his or her capabilities for love and has directed these energies toward the right goals and with the right priorities. Among Christians this is also the meaning of a saint, except that in sanctity special emphasis is given to an explicit and unlimited love of God. For example, prayer occupies a considerable portion of the time and energy of a saint’s life on earth. Whereas, the secular spends most of his or her time relating to others. Maturity, sanctity, wholeness—all refer to that situation in life where all of our energies for love have been released and directed with the right priority toward the greatest possible development of one’s true inner self, toward other human beings, and toward God.

Several assumptions concerning love, for which no attempt will be made to give extensive proof, are made in this book: namely, to instruct and encourage people in some of the ways to release and direct their energies of love toward sanctity and maturity. The basic assumption is that the goal and destiny of all existence is a unity through love. Our premise is that the only way for human beings to attain lasting happiness and fulfillment is to devote all their energies toward the unification of all reality in an experience of true love. Such an experience of love is what the Bible calls God (Cf. I John 4:16). As Christians, we believe and assume that such unity will be accomplished only through the risen Christ. “When finally, all has been subjected to the Son, he will then subject himself to the One who made all things subject to him, so that God may be all in all” (I Cor. 15:28).

Another presupposition of this book is the verity of the statement made in the First Epistle of John: “God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him” (I John 4:16). Therefore, to separate love and religion is impossible; and if we are to discuss intelligently the topic of love, either explicitly or implicitly we must bring God into the discussion. It naturally follows that this book will be a book on religious values; particularly it will be a book for Christian believers who accept Jesus Christ as the manifestation of God upon earth.

Having made these assumptions, we shall attempt to show the value and need for Christians to make full use of the psychological tools which scientific research has given to our generation. The tools that will be used in this book come for the most part from Carl Gustav Jung and his disciples. Acknowledgement and thanks must be given to Father Josef Goldbrunner to whom we owe our first introduction and interpretation of Jung. Jungian psychology has identified and classified many of the immense powers hidden in the unconscious depths of human nature. Thanks to Jung’s insights we are now able to actualize more easily the vast psychic energies of love present in every human soul.