[CS-FSLUG] [OT] God Is Love -- a love letter from the Pope!

[Michael Bradley, Jr.]

                                                            JMJ + OBT

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Two days ago on Jan. 25, Pope Benedict XVI published his first "encyclical
letter" (that is, a letter which is intended to be spread throughout the
Church and the entire world), titled "Deus Caritas Est" -- which is
translated into English from Latin as "God Is Love." In fact, that satement,
"God is love," is a quote from the First Letter of the Apostle St. John in
the New Testament of the Holy Bible (cf. 1 John 4:16).

I encourage all of you, as your busy schedules permit, to read this
wonderful gift, this "love letter," from the Pope.  It will challenge you in
the arenas of heart, mind, and soul; and at the same time leave you
refreshed, as only the Word of God can when preached and explained to us by
a wonderful pastor.

In fact, I believe this letter has particular relevance for many members of
this list:  many of us here have been given a special gift from God that
enables us to use, understand, and explain computers and Internet
technologies more easily than other members of the human family. Moreover,
we've also been "clued in," owing certainly to the action of the Holy
Spirit, to the value that FOSS can and will have in church settings and for
individual church members -- e.g. [F]reedom, lower costs, and other
considerations.  According to His designs and our cooperation with His
grace, I believe that God is using many of us to build churches and
ecclesial communities that are stronger, more "connected," and hopefully
better able to spread the Good News!

Pope Benedict XVI in his letter is calling all men and women to a fuller,
more authentic understanding of human and Divine love; and then he calls us
to a renewed application of these timeless truths in such a way that charity
work -- of all kinds and dimensions -- can better serve our fellow men,
satifsying not only their material needs, but more importantly, leading them
closer to Christ. Yes, I think this is truly relevant to the work that many
of you are doing as individuals and as part of coordinated efforts, such as
The Freely Project.

Here are three different links to webpages which provide the entire text of
the Pope's letter:

         http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=83355

         http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html


         http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=6768



I will leave you with some excerpts from the letter which I found
particularly interesting and inspiring:


5. ... Nowadays Christianity of the past is often criticized as having been
opposed to the body; and it is quite true that tendencies of this sort have
always existed. Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive.
Eros, reduced to pure "sex", has become a commodity, a mere "thing" to be
bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly
man's great "yes" to the body. On the contrary, he now considers his body
and his sexuality as the purely material part of himself, to be used and
exploited at will. Nor does he see it as an arena for the exercise of his
freedom, but as a mere object that he attempts, as he pleases, to make both
enjoyable and harmless. Here we are actually dealing with a debasement of
the human body: no longer is it integrated into our overall existential
freedom; no longer is it a vital expression of our whole being, but it is
more or less relegated to the purely biological sphere. The apparent
exaltation of the body can quickly turn into a hatred of bodiliness.
Christian faith, on the other hand, has always considered man a unity in
duality, a reality in which spirit and matter compenetrate, and in which
each is brought to a new nobility. True, eros tends to rise "in ecstasy"
towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves; yet for this very reason it
calls for a path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing. ...

7. ... In the account of Jacob's ladder, the Fathers of the Church saw this
inseparable connection between ascending and descending love, between eros
which seeks God and agape which passes on the gift received, symbolized in
various ways. In that biblical passage we read how the Patriarch Jacob saw
in a dream, above the stone which was his pillow, a ladder reaching up to
heaven, on which the angels of God were ascending and descending (cf. Gen
28:12; Jn 1:51). A particularly striking interpretation of this vision is
presented by Pope Gregory the Great in his Pastoral Rule. He tells us that
the good pastor must be rooted in contemplation. Only in this way will he be
able to take upon himself the needs of others and make them his own ...
Saint Gregory speaks in this context of Saint Paul, who was borne aloft to
the most exalted mysteries of God, and hence, having descended once more, he
was able to become all things to all men (cf. 2 Cor 12:2-4; 1 Cor 9:22). He
also points to the example of Moses, who entered the tabernacle time and
again, remaining in dialogue with God, so that when he emerged he could be
at the service of his people. "Within [the tent] he is borne aloft through
contemplation, while without he is completely engaged in helping those who
suffer" ...

10. We have seen that God's eros for man is also totally agape. This is not
only because it is bestowed in a completely gratuitous manner, without any
previous merit, but also because it is love which forgives. Hosea above all
shows us that this agape dimension of God's love for man goes far beyond the
aspect of gratuity. Israel has committed "adultery" and has broken the
covenant; God should judge and repudiate her. It is precisely at this point
that God is revealed to be God and not man: "How can I give you up, O
Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! ... My heart recoils within me,
my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger, I
will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in
your midst" (Hos 11:8-9). God's passionate love for his people—for
humanity—is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns
God against himself, his love against his justice. Here Christians can see a
dim prefigurement of the mystery of the Cross: so great is God's love for
man that by becoming man he follows him even into death, and so reconciles
justice and love.

The philosophical dimension to be noted in this biblical vision, and its
importance from the standpoint of the history of religions, lies in the fact
that on the one hand we find ourselves before a strictly metaphysical image
of God: God is the absolute and ultimate source of all being; but this
universal principle of creation—the Logos, primordial reason—is at the same
time a lover with all the passion of a true love. Eros is thus supremely
ennobled, yet at the same time it is so purified as to become one with
agape. We can thus see how the reception of the Song of Songs in the canon
of sacred Scripture was soon explained by the idea that these love songs
ultimately describe God's relation to man and man's relation to God. Thus
the Song of Songs became, both in Christian and Jewish literature, a source
of mystical knowledge and experience, an expression of the essence of
biblical faith: that man can indeed enter into union with God—his primordial
aspiration. But this union is no mere fusion, a sinking in the nameless
ocean of the Divine; it is a unity which creates love, a unity in which both
God and man remain themselves and yet become fully one. As Saint Paul says:
"He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Cor 6:17).

11. ... The biblical account thus concludes with a prophecy about Adam:
"Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife
and they become one flesh" (Gen 2:24).

Two aspects of this are important. First, eros is somehow rooted in man's
very nature; Adam is a seeker, who "abandons his mother and father" in order
to find woman; only together do the two represent complete humanity and
become "one flesh". The second aspect is equally important. From the
standpoint of creation, eros directs man towards marriage, to a bond which
is unique and definitive; thus, and only thus, does it fulfil its deepest
purpose. Corresponding to the image of a monotheistic God is monogamous
marriage. Marriage based on exclusive and definitive love becomes the icon
of the relationship between God and his people and vice versa. God's way of
loving becomes the measure of human love. This close connection between eros
and marriage in the Bible has practically no equivalent in extra-biblical
literature. ...

20. Love of neighbour, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a
responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a
responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level: from the
local community to the particular Church and to the Church universal in its
entirety. As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to
be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community. ...

22. As the years went by and the Church spread further afield, the exercise
of charity became established as one of her essential activities, along with
the administration of the sacraments and the proclamation of the word: love
for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is
as essential to her as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the
Gospel. The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she
can neglect the Sacraments and the Word. ...

28. ... The Church is one of those living forces: she is alive with the love
enkindled by the Spirit of Christ. This love does not simply offer people
material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which
often is even more necessary than material support. In the end, the claim
that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a
materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live "by
bread alone" (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3)—a conviction that demeans man and
ultimately disregards all that is specifically human. ...

31. ... The modern age, particularly from the nineteenth century on, has
been dominated by various versions of a philosophy of progress whose most
radical form is Marxism. Part of Marxist strategy is the theory of
impoverishment: in a situation of unjust power, it is claimed, anyone who
engages in charitable initiatives is actually serving that unjust system,
making it appear at least to some extent tolerable. This in turn slows down
a potential revolution and thus blocks the struggle for a better world. Seen
in this way, charity is rejected and attacked as a means of preserving the
status quo. What we have here, though, is really an inhuman philosophy.
People of the present are sacrificed to the moloch of the future—a future
whose effective realization is at best doubtful. One does not make the world
more human by refusing to act humanely here and now. We contribute to a
better world only by personally doing good now, with full commitment and
wherever we have the opportunity, independently of partisan strategies and
programmes. The Christian's programme —the programme of the Good Samaritan,
the programme of Jesus—is "a heart which sees". This heart sees where love
is needed and acts accordingly. Obviously when charitable activity is
carried out by the Church as a communitarian initiative, the spontaneity of
individuals must be combined with planning, foresight and cooperation with
other similar institutions ...

... Those who practise charity in the Church's name will never seek to
impose the Church's faith upon others. They realize that a pure and generous
love is the best witness to the God in whom we believe and by whom we are
driven to love. 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. He knows that God
is love (cf. 1 Jn4:8) and that God's presence is felt at the very time when
the only thing we do is to love. He knows—to return to the questions raised
earlier—that disdain for love is disdain for God and man alike; it is an
attempt to do without God. Consequently, the best defence of God and man
consists precisely in love. It is the responsibility of the Church's
charitable organizations to reinforce this awareness in their members, so
that by their activity—as well as their words, their silence, their
example—they may be credible witnesses to Christ. ...

33. With regard to the personnel who carry out the Church's charitable
activity on the practical level, the essential has already been said: they
must not be inspired by ideologies aimed at improving the world, but should
rather be guided by the faith which works through love (cf. Gal 5:6).
Consequently, more than anything, they must be persons moved by Christ's
love, persons whose hearts Christ has conquered with his love, awakening
within them a love of neighbour. The criterion inspiring their activity
should be Saint Paul's statement in the Second Letter to the Corinthians:
"the love of Christ urges us on" (5:14). The consciousness that, in Christ,
God has given himself for us, even unto death, must inspire us to live no
longer for ourselves but for him, and, with him, for others. Whoever loves
Christ loves the Church, and desires the Church to be increasingly the image
and instrument of the love which flows from Christ. ...

35. ... There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations
might tempt us to become discouraged. But precisely then we are helped by
the knowledge that, in the end, we are only instruments in the Lord's hands;
and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone
are personally responsible for building a better world. In all humility we
will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the
Lord. It is God who governs the world, not we. We offer him our service only
to the extent that we can, and for as long as he grants us the strength. To
do all we can with what strength we have, however, is the task which keeps
the good servant of Jesus Christ always at work: "The love of Christ urges
us on" (2 Cor 5:14). ...

36. ... Prayer, as a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, is
concretely and urgently needed. People who pray are not wasting their time,
even though the situation appears desperate and seems to call for action
alone. Piety does not undermine the struggle against the poverty of our
neighbours, however extreme. In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we
have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not
only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but
is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service. In her letter for Lent
1996, Blessed Teresa wrote to her lay co-workers: "We need this deep
connection with God in our daily life. How can we obtain it? By prayer".

37. It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the
activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable
work. Clearly, the Christian who prays does not claim to be able to change
God's plans or correct what he has foreseen. Rather, he seeks an encounter
with the Father of Jesus Christ, asking God to be present with the
consolation of the Spirit to him and his work. 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. When people claim to build a case against God in defence of man,
on whom can they depend when human activity proves powerless?

38. Certainly Job could complain before God about the presence of
incomprehensible and apparently unjustified suffering in the world. ...
Often we cannot understand why God refrains from intervening. Yet he does
not prevent us from crying out, like Jesus on the Cross: "My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?" (Mt 27:46). We should continue asking this
question in prayerful dialogue before his face: "Lord, holy and true, how
long will it be?" (Rev 6:10). It is Saint Augustine who gives us faith's
answer to our sufferings: "if you understand him, he is not God." Our
protest is not meant to challenge God, or to suggest that error, weakness or
indifference can be found in him. For the believer, it is impossible to
imagine that God is powerless or that "perhaps he is asleep" (cf. 1 Kg
18:27). Instead, our crying out is, as it was for Jesus on the Cross, the
deepest and most radical way of affirming our faith in his sovereign power.
Even in their bewilderment and failure to understand the world around them,
Christians continue to believe in the "goodness and loving kindness of God"
(Tit 3:4). Immersed like everyone else in the dramatic complexity of
historical events, they remain unshakably certain that God is our Father and
loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible.

39. Faith, hope and charity go together. Hope is practised through the
virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent
failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and
trusts him even at times of darkness. Faith tells us that God has given his
Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really
true: God is love! It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the
sure hope that God holds the world in his hands and that, as the dramatic
imagery of the end of the Book of Revelation points out, in spite of all
darkness he ultimately triumphs in glory. Faith, which sees the love of God
revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love.
Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate
a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working.
Love is possible, and we are able to practise it because we are created in
the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of
God to enter into the world—this is the invitation I would like to extend
with the present Encyclical. ...

42. The lives of the saints are not limited to their earthly biographies but
also include their being and working in God after death. In the saints one
thing becomes clear: those who draw near to God do not withdraw from men,
but rather become truly close to them. In no one do we see this more clearly
than in Mary. .... [T]he devotion of the faithful shows an infallible
intuition of how such love is possible: it becomes so as a result of the
most intimate union with God, through which the soul is totally pervaded by
him—a condition which enables those who have drunk from the fountain of
God's love to become in their turn a fountain from which "flow rivers of
living water" (Jn 7:38).



In Christ,

Michael Bradley, Jr.

--
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life . . ." (John 14:6)

My home on the Net ::
   http://www.michaelsbradleyjr.net/

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