Martes 14 de febrero de 2012 – Celebramos un Día de San Valentín de amor universal junto a Martin Luther King, Jr.

Un día como hoy, hace 50 años, el Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brindó un mensaje sobre los distintos tipos de amor en la Universidad Interamericana en San Germán, Puerto Rico, con ocasión de la celebración del cincuenta aniversario de dicha institución.

El gran líder de la causa de Derechos Civiles y liberación nacional de la opresión racial imperante en Estados Unidos vino a Puerto Rico a raíz de una invitación que le extendió Roberto Clemente y miembros de la Facultad de la Universidad Interamericana en San Germán, que celebra su centenario precisamente este año.

Debido a la gran pertinencia que guarda con la actualidad, hoy y todos los días vale tener presente el valioso mensaje del Dr. King. Es por eso que lo citamos en extenso:

‘But there’s also an internal side to this idea of non-injury. In a non-violent movement, you not only refuse to shoot the opponent, you refuse to hate the opponent. You avoid not only external physical violence, but also internal violence of spirit.

Not all people ask me all along what in the world do you mean when you talk about love as being a part of the movement. How can you love those people who are oppressing you, and those people who are trampling over you with the iron feet of exploitation. What do you mean? How can you do this?

Well let me hasten to say that when I speak of love in this movement I am not speaking of an emotional sentimental outpouring. I’m thinking of something much deeper. Fortunately the Greek language comes to our aid when we seek to define the meaning of love in this context. There are three words in the Greek language for ‘love’. One is the word ‘Eros’. And ‘Eros’ is a sort of aesthetic love. Plato talked about it a great deal in his Dialogue, the yearning in the soul for the real of the divine. It has come to us to be a sort of romantic love and in this sense we have all experienced ‘Eros’, we’ve read about it in the beauties of literature. In a sense Edgar Allan Poe was talking about ‘Eros’ when he talked about his beautiful Annabelle Lee, with the love surrounded by the halo of eternity. In a sense Shakespeare was speaking of ‘Eros’ when he said ‘love is not alters which alters when its alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. It is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken. It is a star to every wandering bard.’ You know I can remember that because I used to quote it to my wife when we were courting. (laughter).

The Greek language also talks about ‘Philip’, which is another love in a sense. It is a reciprocal love. It is intimate affection between personal friends. On this level, you love those persons that you like. It may be a roommate or some of the people you get along with, the people that you eat dinner with. This is friendship.

Then the Greek language comes out with another word, calls it a ‘Agape.’ This is more than a romantic love. ‘Agape’ is more than friendship. ‘Agape’ is understanding creative, redemptive good will for all men. It is the spontaneous overflowing love that seeks nothing in return. Theologians would say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart.

And so when one rises to love on this level, he loves everybody, not merely because he likes them, but he loves every individuals because God loves them, and he rises to the point of loving the person who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. And I believe firmly that this is the kind of love that can guide us through this period of transition. It is if understanding creative, redemptive good will for all men that can transform the social situation.’ (citado de la transcripción del mensaje del Dr. King en la propia Universidad Interamericana).

Hoy, a 50 años de este poderoso mensaje de amor, esperamos que todos los días del año sean días de amor universal, en el sentido cabal y abarcador que lo concibieron grandes amantes de la humanidad como lo fue el Dr. King y tantos otros que predicaron y vivieron la vida de amor y entrega a causas justas, liberación nacional y la reivindicación de la dignidad universal.

Feliz día de San Valentín!

Para más información histórica, sigue a Hans Perl Matanzo y a Ana Gabriela González Oliva en Rico Puerto Rico.