“Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling”
—Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde WAS gay and he DID suck dicks but “love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling” is not about oral sex. It is not even erotic.
Here’s the rest of the quote. It’s from De Profundis:
“Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live. If any love is shown us we should recognise that we are quite unworthy of it. Nobody is worthy to be loved. The fact that God loves man shows us that in the divine order of ideal things it is written that eternal love is to be given to what is eternally unworthy. Or if that phrase seems to be a bitter one to bear, let us say that everyone is worthy of love, except him who thinks that he is. Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling, and Domine, non sum dignus should be on the lips and in the hearts of those who receive it.”
And the experiences all blend into each other in powerful ways.
Perhaps one can’t totally separate his gay experience from the religious shame of believing we are all undeserving of love
And perhaps one also can’t totally separate that from the joyous reinterpretation of that religious lesson, into “I will give and receive the acts of love I am told I don’t deserve, and I will call it a sacrament”
Screw whatever religion and anyone/anything else telling you you’re not worthy of being loved, because that is a hella shitty thing to tell people, and whoever says it is a colossal asshole.
…yeah
Actually doesn’t even follow logic, really
“God loves us even though we’re undeserving of it” is another of those paradoxes of divine perfection
(Kinda like “can god make a rock he can’t lift”)
Because if we are unworthy of love, and God still loves us, that means God does something that’s not worth doing, something that has no value– and therefore God is imperfect
And if there IS value in God loving us in spite of everything –
then it IS an act worth doing, and therefore we ARE worthy of love
Or, I guess, if we are unworthy but the act of loving us is still somehow worthy –
… then that means God’s feelings about us go like, “these creatures are totally worthless and don’t deserve love, but I’m gonna act like I love them anyway, because it’s the Right Thing to Do, in some way totally separate from their actual non-existent value”
And I don’t know what to call that feeling, but I sure don’t call it love
