Frozen Love

When I first saw Frozen years ago, I applauded the writers and all others who worked on the story, themes, and message of the movie. Here was a Disney film that really showed true love. Lots of stories claim true love and there is the cliche “true love’s kiss” can cure anything. But what is “true love” anyway? First, I think we need to ask: What is love? (Baby don’t hurt me….)

Is love a feeling? An emotion? Something we do? The best definition I have heard for love is this: To love is to will the good of the other (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica). We can fulfill this by providing for someone’s material good (e.g. feeding the homeless, sheltering a friend/person in need), for someone’s emotional good (e.g. being a shoulder to cry on/listener), mental good (e.g. counseling/therapy for dealing with trauma or mental illness), or spiritual good (e.g. spreading the Gospel message, helping a person deepen or persevere in their faith in difficult moments). Love is not the warm fuzzies when we see our spouse or a crush, but a conscious choice to desire their good.

So what is true love? True love must be the most pure and true form of love there is therefore true love can be defined as a pure gift of self to the others. “Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for himself, cannot fully express himself except through a sincere gift of self.” (Gaudium et Spes, No. 24) Every human is made for self-gift, that it is in giving ourselves that we are fulfilled. That is true love: a gift of oneself not holding back from the other. It seems to me that true love’s kiss is only an act of true love if it is an expression of the total free gift of oneself to the other.

There is one act of love that is higher than any other, however. It is clearly defined for us in the Gospel of John, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Laying down your life out of love for someone else is the purest, truest form of love. We see it carried out on the Cross of Christ in Sacred Scripture, in crucifixes, and other art. Ana also displays this love when she faces the choice of receiving “true love’s kiss” from Kristoff or going to try and save her sister’s life. Ana chose to sacrifice herself for her sister, expecting the sword meant for Elsa would mean her own demise. That is true love. And true love is always rewarded by God, in this life and the next, even if we don’t always see the reward. This was symbolized in the movie by Ana’s sacrifice of true love was rewarded with the thawing of her frozen heart.

I am very glad Disney showed all the boys and girls, teens, and adults, who watched Frozen that “true love” is not all about finding “the one” and getting “true love’s kiss”. With Ana’s sacrifice, Disney showed the world that true love is about giving and sacrificing for the other. If people really took that message to heart, the world would be much better off for it.