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Pope Francis:
God is love but not
in an 'emotional' sense
By David Uebbing
Vatican City, May 26, 2013 (CNA/EWTN News).- As he celebrated the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, Pope Francis spoke about how God is love, but not in an “emotional” or “sentimental” way.
“The light of Easter and Pentecost have renewed in us each year the joy and wonder of faith that recognizes that God is not something vague, abstract, but has a name: ‘God is love,’” the Pope said May 26, before reciting the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square.
And this love “is not sentimental, emotional, but the love of the Father who is the source of all life, the love of the Son who died on the cross and rose, the love of the Spirit who renews man and the world,” he stated.
Pope Francis then reflected on how the Trinity “is not the product of human reasoning, it is the face which God himself revealed, not from the top of a throne, but walking with humanity in the history of the people of Israel, and above all in Jesus of Nazareth.
“Jesus is the Son who made us know the merciful Father and brought to the world his ‘fire,’ the Holy Spirit,” he said.
On today’s feast, he explained, “we praise God not for a particular mystery, but for himself, ‘for his glory is immense,’ as the liturgical hymn says. We praise him and thank him because he is love, and for how he calls us to enter the embrace of his communion, which is eternal life.”...
Serendipitously, Beatrice has posted on her site a letter Benedict XVI wrote for readers of FAMIGLIA CRISTIANA, Italy's largest- circulation weekly magazine, when it gave out copies of his first encyclical to its readers, at the time DEUS CARITAS EST was issued in December 2005.
Benedict XVI presents his encyclical
to readers of 'Famiglia Cristiana'
December 2005
Dear readers of Famiglia Cristiana,
I am happy that Famiglia Cristiana is sending to your homes the text of my encyclical and has given me the opportunity to accompany it with a few words that may help facilitate your reading.
Initially, in fact, the text may appear a bit difficult and theoretical. But when one goes farther, it becomes evident that I have merely sought to answer a couple of questions that are very concrete for Christian living.
The first question is this: Can one really love God? And then: Can love be imposed? Is it not a sentiment that we either have or don't?
The answer to the first question is Yes. We can love God, since he has not been unreachable but has entered our life. He comes to us, he comes to each of us, in the sacraments which work on our existence; in the faith of the Church through which he addresses us; by making us meet others who have been touched by him and transmit his light; with the dispositions through which he intervenes in our lives; with the wonders of creation that he has given us.
He has not just offered us love, but he lived it for us, and he is knocking in so many ways on our hearts to awaken our love in response to his.
Love is not just a sentiment - it also involves our will and our intelligence. With his Word, God addresses our mind, our will and our sentiment so that we can learn to love him "with all our heart and with all our soul".
In fact, we do not find love 'ready made' - it grows. Therefore, we can learn it slowly, so to speak, in a way that it increasingly encompasses all our forces and opens the way for us to lead a correct life.
The second question is this: Can we really love our 'neighbor' even when he is alien to us or even downright unsympathetic? Yes we can, if we are friends of God. If we are his friends: In this way, it becomes even more clear that he has always loved us, even if we often take our eyes off him and live by following other orientations.
But if his friendship starts to be, gradually, more important and incisive in our life, then we will start to wish well - to love - all those whom he loves and who may need our help. He wants us to be friends with his friends, and that we can do if we are close to him ourselves.
Then there is the question: With her commandments and her prohibitions, does not the Church spoil for us the joy of eros, of being loved, which urges one to be with another person, to a union with the other?
In the encyclical, I have sought to show that the most profound promise of eros can only mature if we do not seek only to grasp transient happiness.
On the contrary, together, two people can find the patience to discover each other in their most intimate being, in the totality of body and soul, in a way that the happiness of the other becomes more important than my own.
Because then, one will not seek only to take from the other but to give, and it is in this liberation from the 'I' that man finds himself and is able to feel complete joy.
In the encyclical, I also write about a course of purification and maturation that is necessary so that the true promise of eros can be fulfilled. The language of tradition calls it 'education in chastity' which means none other than learning the fullness of love patiently through its growth and maturation.
The second part of the encyclical is about charity, the communitarian service of love by the Church for all those who suffer in body and spirit, who need the gift of love.
About this, two questions are usually raised: Can the Church not leave this service to other philanthropic organizations which exist in many forms?
The answer is No. The Church cannot do this. She must practice love for neighbor as a community, otherwise, its announcement of the God of love is incomplete and inadequate.
The second question: Is it not better to foster an order of justice in which there will no longer be any needy persons, and therefore, charity becomes superfluous?
The answer is this: Of course, the object of politics is to create a just order in society, which acknowledges the rights and needs of everyone, and no one suffers because of poverty. In this sense, the true goal of politics is justice, along with peace, which cannot exist without justice.
By her nature, the Church does not engage in politics directly, but she respects the autonomy of the State and its order in society. Common sense dictates the quest for an order of justice since politics is in the interest of all citizens.
Often, however, reason is blinded by special interests and the desire for power. Faith serves to purify reason so that it may see and decide correctly. Therefore, it is the task of the Church to heal reason and to reinforce the will to do good.
In this sense - without the Church herself engaging in politics - the Church participates most passionately in the quest for justice. It is up to those Christians who are involved in public professions to work politically in order to open new ways to justice.
But this is only the first part of the answer to the question. The second part, which is particularly close to my heart, is this: Justice can never make love superfluous.
Beyond justice, man needs love, which alone can animate justice. In a world as wounded as we are experiencing today, we do not really need to illustrate this.
The world expects the witness of Christian love which is inspired by our faith. In our world, which is often so dark, the light of God shines through this love.
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