What is Love?

The room was noisy, the atmosphere cheerful and appetites were starved for want of food set before the delegates at the dinner buffet. The event was an end to a busy day of meeting of the minds of ladies, bishops and clergy representing their parishes.

"What is love?" asked the bishop at the dinner table. "How would you describe it?"
Ordinarily, such a universal question would create a quick and impulsive response from all genders and ages. But this was not an ordinary table. Seated was the bishop, priests, women, married with children and without, a single young girl, a young man and I.
"Love is that feeling of need, an unquenchable want for something that cannot be attained," said 'C'.
"In other words," said 'E', "unrequited love. "
"That's not unrequited love," said 'B'. "That's lust. Lust and desire, they hold on, they clutch what you have."
"Much like conditional love," said 'A'.
"Yes," said 'E'. "Conditional love is based on fear. True love cannot have conditions attached.For example, take the unconditional love of a mother toward her child."
"Uh-huh," chimed 'D'. "Love doesn't constrict. Love lets go. It shares, it soothes, it comforts."
"True," said the bishop. "So let me rephrase the question. What is perfect love?"
"Love is perfection of goodness and understanding and mercy and compassion," said 'F'.
"Love can be blind," said 'A', "and yet be perfect in the eyes of the beholder."
"How can it be perfect when blinded by love creates a false reality about whom you love and why you love?" asked 'B'.
"Love encompasses awe, mysticism." This from 'F'.
"That's stricken or smitten by love and not true and perfect love," responded 'B'.
"Love," said the bishop, "in its perfection, engages mind, body and soul in unity. It requires wisdom."
"But youth doesn't wait or know wisdom. Youth gather knowledge, pass through experiences, cherish hopes which as a rule can only later be fulfilled. So they're at a disadvantage, given your explanation," said 'C'.
"Perhaps, yes. But it's not to say that those experiences do not lend to the 'I' in you. They lend to find your bearings as an 'I' and the life of your entire being, mind, body and soul, is constantly enriched as you gain wisdom," explained 'D'.
"The older we grow, the more we begin to love the wisdom revealed by life. The more love of life wisdom increases, egoism and expectation of gaining something from our wisdom decreases, " said the bishop.
I smiled. It was my turn.

"It is the sum total. The everything. The Alpha and the Omega," said 'I'. "Love is the ultimate in selflessness of mind, body and soul."

This I humbly speak from my heart.