Love according to Pope Benedict

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Presence and communion Dr. Stephen Milne, 2008.

Presence and communion: Love according the Pope Benedict XVI Dr. Stephen Milne The Gift of God

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ope Benedict's wonderful encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love)1 was first given in Rome on 25th December 2005; it is an important reflection on the meaning and practice of love for each believer and for the Church as a "Community of Love".

The Holy Father begins his encyclical by reminding us of St John's words "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 Jn 4:16). A long-time favourite of mine, St John's letter from the Scriptures captures the "heart of the Christian faith" by expressing the Christian image of God "and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny" (DCE, 1). I have often dwelt on these words, and we have "abide with me" hung at the bottom of our stairwell in our home to remind us of their importance. For Benedict XVI, their importance is in how they summarize the "fundamental decision" of the Christian life, that "we have come to believe in God's love" so that, "Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea but the encounter with an event, a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction" (DCE, 1). How often I have come across the notion that being a Christian is simply 'a comfort', 'an ideal to aspire to', or an attempt to live by someone else's 'rules'! Throughout Pope Benedict's letter, it is the Person of Jesus Christ that shines through, the Person without whom our ability to love remains wounded by sin, but with whom new power is given for the world by which it can know God's Love and carry it forth into the lives of others. Benedict XVI reminds us further at the start of his letter that the central "event" that can be encountered in faith is God's gift of "his only son, that whoever believes in him should...have eternal life" (Jn 3:16). In continuity with the faith and worship of Israel, Jesus brought together the "commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbour". This means that love is now more than an 'obligation', it becomes a "response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us" (DCE, 1).

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Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI, Catholic Truth Society, 2006.

www.stephenmilne.wordpress.com.


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