"God is love, and he who abides in love
abides in God, and God abides in him (1 Jn 4:16)."
These words from the First Letter of John express
with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian
faith: the Christian image of God and the
resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the
same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of
summary of the Christian life: "We have come to
know and to believe in the love God has for us.¨
These are the words which begin the
encyclical.
"In a world in which the name of God is
associated with vengeance, or where hate and
violence are associated to it, the Christian
message of God's Love is of great actuality,"
stresses the Pope.
The encyclical is divided into two parts. The
first one offers a theological reflection on
"Love", in its different dimensions -eros,
philia, agape- giving some essential
precisions on the Love of God for man and its
intrinsic union with human love.
The terme "Love" affirms the document, "one
of the most used and abused words in the world
today, possesses a wide semantic range. In the
multiple significant, though, emerges the
archetype of what is the love between a man and a
women, which in the antique Greece was given the
name eros."
Following on the explanation of the Word
"Love", the Holy Father reminds that "in the
Bible", and above all in the New Testament, the
concept of "Love is deepened- a development that
is expressed in Mass at the limit of the word
Eros and more in favor of the term
Agape, to express such a self-gving
Love."
Encountering possible misinterpretations of
such a development, such as negative readings of
Eros and corporality, the Encyclical
underlines that "the Eros, set into its
nature of man by the same Creator, is in need of
discipline, purification and maturation in order
not to loose his original dignity and not to
degrade it to pure 'sex' therefore becoming a
commodity."
"The Christian faith-he continues- has
always considered man as a being in which the
spirit and the matter compenetrate,
acquiring a new nobility from it. The
challenge of Eros is considered overcome
when in man, body and soul meet in perfect
harmony. Love then becomes, yes an 'extasis' not a
moment of momentary intoxication but rather an
ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking
self towards its liberation through self-giving
and thus towards authentic self-discovery and
indeed the discovery of God".
"In Jesus Christ, who is the love incarnate
of God, the eros-agape reaches its more
radical form. In the death of the cross, Jesus,
giving himself to elevate and save man, expresses
Love in its most sublime form. In this act of
offering, Jesus has assured a lasting presence
through the institution of the Eucharist, which
under the species of bread and wine, he gives
himself as the new manna that unites us to him."
"Participating to the Eucharist, we are
involved too in the dynamic of his gift. We
unite ourselves to him and at the same time to all
the others to which he gives himself. We become
then one body. So that Love for God and Love for
the neighbor are truly fused. The double
commandment becomes one, thanks to this encounter
with the Agape of God: Love can be "sent"
because it has first been given.
The practice of Love by the
Church
The second part of the
document deals with the concrete exercise of the
commandment of love to the neighbor. It this part
he affirms that "the love to the neighbor is
rooted in the love of God, along with being a duty
for all the faithful; it is also for the whole
ecclesial community, who in its charitable
activity is the manifestation of Trinitarian
love"
"The conscience of such a duty has had a
constituent relevance for the Church since its
beginning. In the fundamental structure of the
Church appeared the "diaconia" as service of Love
to the neighbor exercised in community and in an
ordained manner."
Pope Benedict shows as well how "with the
progressive spread of the Church, The Church's
deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold
responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God
(kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments
(leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of
charity (diakonia).
The Pope criticizes then the utilitarian
vision of charity, especially in marxism,
affirming that from the XIX century on, a
fundamental objection has been raised against the
charitable work of the Church: it would be counter
to justice and would end up acting in maintaining
the status quo. With the accomplishment of works
of charity, the Church would favor the maintaining
of an unjust system making it acceptable and
therefore slowing protracting the rebellion and
the potential change for a better world. In that
sense, marxims had pointed out in the world
revolution and its preparation, the panacea for
the social problematic- a dream that vanished
through time.
Reminding in the same line, the
magisterial of the Pontiffs, "beginning with the
Encyclical Rerum novarum of Leo XIII towards the
trilogy of John Paul II's social Encyclicals
(Laborem exercens, Sollicitudo rei socialis,
Centesimus annus), the Encyclical affirms that he
faced with insistence the social question, and
while confronting problematic situations, he
always developed a very articulate social
doctrine, that proposed valid orientations over
the confines of the Church."
"The
creation of a just order of society and the State,
is a central responsibility of politics, and can
therefore not be directly given to the Church. The
catholic social doctrine does not want to give the
Church power over the State, but only purify and
illuminate reason, offering its proper
contribution to the formation of consciences, so
that the real requests of justice can be
perceived, recognized and realized. There exists
though, no stately order that, can make
superficial the service of love."
"The State that wishes to provide for
everything becomes a burocratic instance that
cannot assure the essential contribution that the
suffering man needs: the loving personal
dedication," warns as well Pope Benedict.
The Encyclical shows how to see as a
collateral effect of globalization, "that manifest
in the fact that the solicitude of the neighbor,
transcends the confines of national communities,
and tends to extend to the whole world. The
structure of national communities and humanitarian
associations backs in many ways the solidarity
expressed by civil society: many organizations
with charitable and philanthropic ends have been
created lately."
The Catholic Church as well- the Holy
Father continues- and in other ecclesial
communities have surfaced new modes of charitable
activities. Among all these, it is necessary that
a fruitful collaboration may be established. For
this reason, it is very important that the
Church's charitable activity maintains all of its
splendour and does not become just another form of
social assistance."
For the Church to keep the essence of
Christian charity, his Hollines refers to the
necessity to:
- Be led to that
encounter with God in Christ which awakens their
love and opens their spirits to others.
- Christian charitable activity
must be independent of parties and ideologies. The
Christian's programme, the programme of the Good
Samaritan, the programme of Jesus "a heart which
sees."
- Charity, furthermore, cannot be
used as a means of engaging in what is nowadays
considered proselytism. Love is free; it is not
practised as a way of achieving other
ends.
But this does not mean that charitable
activity must somehow leave God and Christ aside,"
warns the Pope. "A Christian knows when it is time
to speak of God and when it is better to say
nothing and to let love alone speak."
Prayer in
the action
Towards the end of the Encyclical, the
Holy Father reminds the importance of prayer. "In
the face of secularism and activism, that may
condition also the lives of many Christians
engaged in charitable work, it is important to
reaffirm the importance of prayer."
A personal
relationship with God and an abandonment to his
will can prevent man from being demeaned and save
him from falling prey to the teaching of
fanaticism and terrorism. An authentically
religious attitude prevents man from presuming to
judge God, accusing him of allowing poverty and
failing to have compassion for his
creatures.
"He who prays doesn't not waist his
time, even though if the situation seem to call
only for action, he doesn¡¦t pretend to change or
correct the plans of God, but rather searches at
the example of Mary and the Saints, to find light
in God." the Pontiff concluded.
To read full text of the Encyclical:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/document.php?n=104
