Some Comments on Deus Caritas Est

The Holy Father's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, is probably one of the most easily understandable papal encyclicals I have read. It is divided into two main parts, the first dealing with the nature of love understood from a philosophical and theological perspective and the second with concrete expressions of love in the Church's charitable works. The second section is supposed to have begun as a draft of a document by John Paul II.

This encyclical is at once basic and profound. It is marked by a deceptive lucidity that comes through even in translation from German.  The orderly German theological mind of its author reveals itself and we, the readers, are all the better for it.

The encyclical's treatment of the kinds of love, the nature of God's love, and the love of man for God is highly pertinent and very accessible. I think many people will be surprised at how relatively easy a read it is.  The discussion of sexual love will get most of the attention--the headlines are already pitching this as about sex--although that isn't the main topic of the letter. 

Interestingly enough, Benedict XVI has a few things in his discussion of divine love that will get the theologians' tongues moving.

The discussion of the Church's charitable work, including the relationship of charity and justice and the role of the state with respect to charity and justice is extremely well presented. I'll use it in my social ethics teaching. Benedict's teaching here is apt also to generate some controversy, especially with respect to the state's role, and the limitations on government activity. In a sense, that's not the main point but in a politicized world, some people won't see anything else.

The relationship between love of God and love of man is elegantly stated. It takes what is often a presented as a cliche and helps us understand its profound and necessary truth. Likewise, the relationship between love of God and the communion of the Church in love is explained in a manner that moves beyond the platitudes to the underlying reality.

There's much more to say, of course.  But that will have to come later.  Oh, one more thing: it's relatively short--some 16,000 words in translation. I'm of two minds about that.  I like what was there so much I wish he would have expanded on certain points. Yet long encyclicals discourage many readers.

Anyway, as I say, more to come.

l

Comments

[Jackson]

Deus Caritas Est. How appropriate to begin with the fundamentals. What a tremendous gift to the world is Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church!

Some highlights:

"Love is indeed 'ecstasy', not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, 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: 'Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it' (Lk 17:33)."

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"Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift."

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"So great is God's love for man that by becoming man he follows him even into death."

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"When Jesus speaks in his parables of the shepherd who goes after the lost sheep, of the woman who looks for the lost coin, of the father who goes to meet and embrace his prodigal son, these are no mere words: they constitute an explanation of his very being and activity. His death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him. This is love in its most radical form. By contemplating the pierced side of Christ (cf. 19:37), we can understand the starting-point of this Encyclical Letter: 'God is love' (1 Jn 4:8). It is there that this truth can be contemplated. It is from there that our definition of love must begin. In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move."

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"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). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being."

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"[I]f reason is to be exercised properly, it must undergo constant purification, since it can never be completely free of the danger of a certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interests."

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"The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has
to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply."

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"Christian charitable activity must be independent of parties and ideologies. It is not a means of changing the world ideologically, and it is not at the service of worldly stratagems, but it is a way of making present here and now the love which man always needs."

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"Practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ. My deep personal sharing in the needs and sufferings of others becomes a sharing of my very self with them: if my gift is not to prove a source of humiliation, I must give to others not only something that is my own, but my very self; I must be personally present in my gift."

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"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."

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"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."

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"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."

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"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."

[Jackson]

Benedict also says this:

"The saints — consider the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta — constantly renewed their capacity for love...."

Later, he includes Teresa in a list of saints: "The figures of saints such as Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, John of God, Camillus of Lellis, Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, Giuseppe B. Cottolengo, John Bosco, Luigi Orione, Teresa of Calcutta to name but a few—stand out as lasting models of social charity for all people of good will."

Has Mother Teresa been declared a saint? If not, is he here signalling here that she will be? Forgive any ignorance of this on my part.

[Carl Olson]

Jackson: I think B16 is hinting that Mother Teresa will soon be a Saint. However, one can be a "saint" without being a "Saint." Time will tell...

[Jackson]

Ah yes, saint and Saint. I get it.

[Ivo Coelho]

Mother Teresa has been declared Blessed. Technically she is not yet 'Saint', but in a loose way of speaking, yes, she is... Perhaps the Pope is not being technical in the passage under question...