what is the flavour of love?

when the worst has happened, there is nothing left to fear. how do you survive the destruction of dreams? find new ones, naturally. dear long-suffering friends have reminded me that it is okay if you feel your hands are tied, because Christ's were, also. i am reminded, too, that Christianity is the only religion whose God does not command anything that He has not already done to an infinitely greater degree. there is no law or rule for which He has not given us the example. love and suffering are the same. to love is to suffer, and all our loves must be redeemed and refined by suffering. ultimately, everything always comes down to love. love, then, is jeremiah's scroll: like honey to the tongue but bitter in the stomach. the question is not are you willing to love, but are you willing to suffer?

- Eliot, "Gerontion"