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A Reflection on Deus Caritas Est: God is Love
The First Encyclical of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
The First Encyclical of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Many people may be wondering what the Holy Father is up to in his first encyclical, or major writing, called Deus Caritas Est. Some in the secular sphere may think that the church has no business talking about a subject like love. After all, doesn’t the church seem suspicious of love, of the depths of passion and eros that enthrall and fascinate lovers and which are so wrapped up in physical and bodily expression and intimacy?
In a sense, doesn’t the church seem a bit too Victorian or "prudish to give a proper dissertation on carnal passion, intimacy and lovemaking?
But that is where you would be wrong. Passion, love, and intimacy are precisely what the church is all about. Pope Benedict reclaims love as the centerpoint and focus for the Christian faith. In my estimation, it seems he wants to rescue love from the debasement that modern society has subjected it to… and instead assert that love of God and others is in reality not different from the love between man and woman; indeed the eros of man and woman is not unlike the love of God in Christ.
The human being is an interpenetration of the body and soul. Body and soul illumine and complement each other… they are not at odds. True eros, true ecstasy, leads us beyond ourselves and ultimately to the divine. We can never reduce love to merely the physical or biological. Intimacy is akin to contemplation, it is a relational self-disclosure which leads us on a journey to discover our true selves, and ultimately God’s very self.
When we think of the union of the physical and natural, and the spiritual and supernatural, what better example can we have than the person of Christ?! He is at once human and divine: physical human flesh, and yet fully the God of the universe.
The Eucharist is physical and tangible, it can be held in your hand. At the same time, it is so beyond the physical… it is God’s very self. What an intimacy this is! When we receive the Eucharist, we too are wrapped up in the dynamics of God’s self-giving. We give and receive, we are transformed and so seek to transform the world in charity.
The Pope makes his encyclical a dual project, first to define love and second to show it in action in the practice of charity. If love is giving and receiving, it cannot be limited and selfish. It has to be productive and spring forth. Love can’t help but to be fruitful and to be life-giving and ever-new.
It is my hope that the underlying theme in the Pope’s message about love, of its propensity to give new life and engender greater unity and mutuality, will indeed be the motif for Pope Benedict’s loving care of the church. With a radical love for God and for each other, we cannot help but transform the world.
In a sense, doesn’t the church seem a bit too Victorian or "prudish to give a proper dissertation on carnal passion, intimacy and lovemaking?
But that is where you would be wrong. Passion, love, and intimacy are precisely what the church is all about. Pope Benedict reclaims love as the centerpoint and focus for the Christian faith. In my estimation, it seems he wants to rescue love from the debasement that modern society has subjected it to… and instead assert that love of God and others is in reality not different from the love between man and woman; indeed the eros of man and woman is not unlike the love of God in Christ.
The human being is an interpenetration of the body and soul. Body and soul illumine and complement each other… they are not at odds. True eros, true ecstasy, leads us beyond ourselves and ultimately to the divine. We can never reduce love to merely the physical or biological. Intimacy is akin to contemplation, it is a relational self-disclosure which leads us on a journey to discover our true selves, and ultimately God’s very self.
When we think of the union of the physical and natural, and the spiritual and supernatural, what better example can we have than the person of Christ?! He is at once human and divine: physical human flesh, and yet fully the God of the universe.
The Eucharist is physical and tangible, it can be held in your hand. At the same time, it is so beyond the physical… it is God’s very self. What an intimacy this is! When we receive the Eucharist, we too are wrapped up in the dynamics of God’s self-giving. We give and receive, we are transformed and so seek to transform the world in charity.
The Pope makes his encyclical a dual project, first to define love and second to show it in action in the practice of charity. If love is giving and receiving, it cannot be limited and selfish. It has to be productive and spring forth. Love can’t help but to be fruitful and to be life-giving and ever-new.
It is my hope that the underlying theme in the Pope’s message about love, of its propensity to give new life and engender greater unity and mutuality, will indeed be the motif for Pope Benedict’s loving care of the church. With a radical love for God and for each other, we cannot help but transform the world.