Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God --1 John 4:7
Beloved. Such a beautiful word. Do you think of yourself as beloved? I could spend the whole day contemplating this word; how it feels interiorly to know I am loved; how I respond to being loved. Pope Benedict XVI considered this relationship of love so important that he wrote his first encyclical about it. Written in 2005, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) explores in fullness God’s Love and our response. Here are some of his thoughts on our response:
“Following the example given in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christian charity is first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for and healing the sick, visiting those in prison, etc. . . We are dealing with human beings, and human beings always need something more than technically proper care. They need humanity. They need heartfelt concern. . . As a result, love of neighbor will no longer be a commandment imposed, so to speak, from without, but a consequence deriving from faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6).” Part II 31a
“[The Church] 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.” Part II 28a
“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 practice 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.” Part II 39 http://www.vatican.va
Beloved, let us love because we are so loved.
(first published in the Justice Bulletin Board 6th Sunday of Easter B 5/13/2012)