God gave us the ability to love, we cannot experience love without his presence.
This link has been bookmarked by 46 people . It was first bookmarked on 29 Jul 2006, by Mike Roesch.
-
02 Dec 14
-
27 Aug 14
-
. Having reflected on the nature of love and its meaning in biblical faith, we are left with two questions concerning our own attitude: can we love God without seeing him? And can love be commanded? Against the double commandment of love these questions raise a double objection. No one has ever seen God, so how could we love him? Moreover, love cannot be commanded; it is ultimately a feeling that is either there or not, nor can it be produced by the will. Scripture seems to reinforce the first objection when it states: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20). But this text hardly excludes the love of God as something impossible. On the contrary, the whole context of the passage quoted from the First Letter of John shows that such love is explicitly demanded. The unbreakable bond between love of God and love of neighbour is emphasized. One is so closely connected to the other that to say that we love God becomes a lie if we are closed to our neighbour or hate him altogether. Saint John's words should rather be interpreted to mean that love of neighbour is a path th
-
-
19 Aug 14
-
a) The just ordering of society and the State is a central responsibility of politics.
-
Here politics and faith meet. Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God—an encounter opening up new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason. But it is also a purifying force for reason itself. From God's standpoint, faith liberates reason from its blind spots and therefore helps it to be ever more fully itself. Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly. This is where Catholic social doctrine has its place: it has no intention of giving the Church power over the State. Even less is it an attempt to impose on those who do not share the faith ways of thinking and modes of conduct proper to faith. Its aim is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, to the acknowledgment and attainment of what is just.
-
The Church's social teaching argues on the basis of reason and natural law, namely, on the basis of what is in accord with the nature of every human being. It recognizes that it is not the Church's responsibility to make this teaching prevail in political life. Rather, the Church wishes to help form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest. Building a just social and civil order, wherein each person receives what is his or her due, is an essential task which every generation must take up anew. As a political task, this cannot be the Church's immediate responsibility. Yet, since it is also a most important human responsibility, the Church is duty-bound to offer, through the purification of reason and through ethical formation, her own specific contribution towards understanding the requirements of justice and achieving them politically.
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.
-
This situation has led to the birth and the growth of many forms of cooperation between State and Church agencies, which have borne fruit. C
-
b) Christian charitable activity must be independent of parties and ideologies.
-
c) Charity, furthermore, cannot be used as a means of engaging in what is nowadays considered proselytism.
-
36. When we consider the immensity of others' needs, we can, on the one hand, be driven towards an ideology that would aim at doing what God's governance of the world apparently cannot: fully resolving every problem. Or we can be tempted to give in to inertia, since it would seem that in any event nothing can be accomplished. At such times, a living relationship with Christ is decisive if we are to keep on the right path, without falling into an arrogant contempt for man, something not only unconstructive but actually destructive, or surrendering to a resignation which would prevent us from being guided by love in the service of others. 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”.
-
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?
-
-
10 Dec 13
-
“Eros” and “Agape” – difference and unity
-
-
04 Oct 13
-
Man is truly himself when his body and soul are intimately united
-
Should he aspire to be pure spirit and to reject the flesh as pertaining to his animal nature alone, then spirit and body would both lose their dignity. On the other hand, should he deny the spirit and consider matter, the body, as the only reality, he would likewise lose his greatness.
-
it is neither the spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves.
-
-
19 Jun 13
-
17 Apr 13
-
Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person
-
Christian faith has retained the core of Israel's faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth
-
which we in turn must share
-
hampered by a problem of language
-
occurs rather infrequently
-
let us, too, yield to love
-
eros needs to be disciplined and purified
-
they heal it and restore its true grandeur.
-
it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.
-
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
-
biblical faith does not set up a parallel universe, or one opposed to that primordial human phenomenon
-
joy in truth and in righteousness
-
it is a unity which creates love, a unity in which both God and man remain themselves and yet become fully one.
-
God's way of loving becomes the measure of human love
-
The real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts—an unprecedented realism.
-
The imagery of marriage between God and Israel is now realized in a way previously inconceivable: it had meant standing in God's presence, but now it becomes union with God through sharing in Jesus' self-gift, sharing in his body and blood.
-
A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented.
-
Love can be “commanded” because it has first been given.
-
Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbour.
-
Love of God and love of neighbour have become one
-
Moreover, love cannot be commanded; it is ultimately a feeling that is either there or not, nor can it be produced by the will.
-
love of neighbour is a path that leads to the encounter with God
-
we thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives.
-
love is not merely a sentiment. Sentiments come and go.
-
God's will is no longer for me an alien will, something imposed on me from without by the commandments, but it is now my own will
-
Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ.
-
But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, then my relationship with God will also grow arid
-
Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment. But both live from the love of God who has loved us first.
-
“If you see charity, you see the Trinity”, wrote Saint Augustine
-
The Spirit, in fact, is that interior power which harmonizes their hearts with Christ's heart and moves them to love their brethren as Christ loved them
-
Love is therefore the service that the Church carries out in order to attend constantly to man's sufferings and his needs
-
“All who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-5)
-
within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.
-
With the formation of this group of seven, “diaconia”—the ministry of charity exercised in a communitarian, orderly way—became part of the fundamental structure of the Church.
-
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.
-
pagans were struck by the Christians' concern for the needy of every sort
-
diaconiae
-
The dramatic description of Lawrence's martyrdom was known to Saint Ambrose
-
the poor themselves as the real treasure of the Church
-
Julian the Apostate
-
he blamed this brutal act on the Emperor Constantius, who passed himself off as an outstanding Christian. The Christian faith was thus definitively discredited in his eyes.
-
sole aspect of Christianity which had impressed him was the Church's charitable activity.
-
These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable.
-
The Church is God's family in the world. In this family no one ought to go without the necessities of life.
-
There is admittedly some truth to this argument, but also much that is mistaken.
-
My great predecessor John Paul II
-
Politics is more than a mere mechanism for defining the rules of public life: its origin and its goal are found in justice, which by its very nature has to do with ethics.
-
Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly
-
The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible.
-
Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such.
-
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
-
As citizens of the State, they are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity.
-
there will never be a situation where the charity of each individual Christian is unnecessary, because in addition to justice man needs, and will always need, love.
-
Our times call for a new readiness to assist our neighbours in need.
-
we now have at our disposal numerous means for offering humanitarian assistance to our brothers and sisters in need
-
readiness of the Catholic Church to cooperate with the charitable agencies of these Churches and Communities, since we all have the same fundamental motivation and look towards the same goal
-
the command of love of neighbour is inscribed by the Creator in man's very nature
-
We are dealing with human beings, and human beings always need something more than technically proper care. They need humanity. They need heartfelt concern.
-
but a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6).
-
One does not make the world more human by refusing to act humanely here and now.
-
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.
-
Consequently, the best defence of God and man consists precisely in love.
-
the exercise of charity is an action of the Church as such, and that, like the ministry of Word and Sacrament, it too has been an essential part of her mission from the very beginning
-
they must not be inspired by ideologies aimed at improving the world, but should rather be guided by the faith which works through love
-
Whoever loves Christ loves the Church, and desires the Church to be increasingly the image and instrument of the love which flows from Christ.
-
Practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ.
-
This duty is a grace.
-
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.
-
People who pray are not wasting their time, even though the situation appears desperate and seems to call for action alone.
-
A personal relationship with God
-
It is Saint Augustine who gives us faith's answer to our sufferings: “Si comprehendis, non est Deus”—”if you understand him, he is not God.”
-
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.
-
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.
-
In these words she expresses her whole programme of life: not setting herself at the centre, but leaving space for God,
-
Mary's greatness consists in the fact that she wants to magnify God, not herself.
-
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
-
-
21 Mar 13
-
20 Feb 13
-
“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him
-
the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others.
-
intrinsic link between that Love and the reality of human love
-
we cannot simply prescind
-
agape
-
The tendency to avoid the word eros, together with the new vision of love expressed through the word agape, clearly point to something new and distinct about the Christian understanding of love.
-
eros principally as a kind of intoxication
-
But it in no way rejected eros as such; rather, it declared war on a warped and destructive form of it,
-
it is man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves.
-
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.
-
love looks to the eternal
-
descending, oblative love—agape—would be typically Christian, while on the other hand ascending, possessive or covetous love —eros—would be typical of non-Christian, and particularly Greek culture
-
Yet eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated
-
On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.
-
original source, which is Jesus Christ,
-
eros which seeks God and agape which passes on the gift received
-
rooted in contemplation
-
deserve to be highlighted: the image of God and the image of man.
-
it is solely the object of love
-
personal love
-
God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape.
-
God's passionate love for his people—for humanity—is at the same time a forgiving love.
-
eros is somehow rooted in man's very nature
-
eros directs man towards marriage
-
More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving.
-
Union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself.
-
my own practical commitment here and now
-
God does not demand of us a feeling which we ourselves are incapable of producing.
-
“yes” of our will to his will
-
Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave.
-
It becomes merely “proper”, but loveless.
-
Love grows through love.
-
above all when he gave his life for us
-
even beyond the confines of the Church:
-
as a community which the State must recognize.
-
purify reason
-
A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church
-
loving personal concern
-
The Church can never be exempted from practising charity as an organized activity of believers
-
The anti-culture of death, which finds expression for example in drug use, is thus countered by an unselfish love which shows itself to be a culture of life by the very willingness to “lose itself” (cf. Lk 17:33 et passim) for others
-
man is made in the image of God
-
the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations
-
“formation of the heart”
-
Christian charitable activity must be independent of parties and ideologies
-
“a heart which sees”. This heart sees where love is needed and acts accordingly.
-
proselytism
-
This duty is a grace. The more we do for others, the more we understand and can appropriate the words of Christ: “We are useless servants” (Lk 17:10).
-
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.
-
Prayer, as a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, is concretely and urgently needed
-
the inexhaustible source of that service.
-
asking God to be present with the consolation of the Spirit to him and his work
-
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.
-
not setting herself at the centre, but leaving space for God, who is encountered both in prayer and in service of neighbour—only then does goodness enter the world
-
magnify God, not herself.
-
Since Mary is completely imbued with the Word of God, she is able to become the Mother of the Word Incarnate
-
those who draw near to God do not withdraw from men, but rather become truly close to them
-
-
28 Dec 12
-
13 Nov 12
-
36. When we consider the immensity of others' needs, we can, on the one hand, be driven towards an ideology that would aim at doing what God's governance of the world apparently cannot: fully resolving every problem. Or we can be tempted to give in to inertia, since it would seem that in any event nothing can be accomplished. At such times, a living relationship with Christ is decisive if we are to keep on the right path, without falling into an arrogant contempt for man, something not only unconstructive but actually destructive, or surrendering to a resignation which would prevent us from being guided by love in the service of others. 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”.
-
-
17 Jul 12
-
30 May 12
-
13 Dec 11
-
“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16).
-
Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.
-
The pious Jew prayed daily the words of the Book of Deuteronomy which expressed the heart of his existence: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might” (6:4-5).
-
Jesus united into a single precept this commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbour found in the Book of Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (19:18; cf. Mk 12:29-31).
-
Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.
-
That love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings, was called eros by the ancient Greeks.
-
of the three Greek words for love, eros, philia (the love of friendship) and agape, New Testament writers prefer the last, which occurs rather infrequently in Greek usage.
-
As for the term philia, the love of friendship, it is used with added depth of meaning in Saint John's Gospel in order to express the relationship between Jesus and his disciples.
-
The tendency to avoid the word eros, together with the new vision of love expressed through the word agape, clearly point to something new and distinct about the Christian understanding of love.
-
First, there is a certain relationship between love and the Divine: love promises infinity, eternity—a reality far greater and totally other than our everyday existence.
-
This is due first and foremost to the fact that man is a being made up of body and soul. Man is truly himself when his body and soul are intimately united; the challenge of eros can be said to be truly overcome when this unification is achieved.
-
Only when both dimensions are truly united, does man attain his full stature. Only thus is love —eros—able to mature and attain its authentic grandeur.
-
agape
-
this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.
-
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), as Jesus says throughout the Gospels (cf. Mt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25).
-
Yet eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated.
-
Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature.
-
On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive.
-
Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.
-
Certainly, as the Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. Jn 7:37-38). Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God (cf. Jn 19:34).
-
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.
-
He tells us that the good pastor must be rooted in contemplation.
-
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)
-
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.
-
the one true God himself who is the source of all that exists; the whole world comes into existence by the power of his creative Word.
-
Consequently, his creation is dear to him, for it was willed by him and “made” by him.
-
this God loves man
-
The one God in whom Israel believes, on the other hand, loves with a personal love.
-
God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape.
-
The Prophets, particularly Hosea and Ezekiel, described God's passion for his people using boldly erotic images. God's relationship with Israel is described using the metaphors of betrothal and marriage; idolatry is thus adultery and prostitution.
-
It consists in the fact that man, through a life of fidelity to the one God, comes to experience himself as loved by God, and discovers joy in truth and in righteousness—a joy in God which becomes his essential happiness
-
We have seen that God's eros for man is also totally agape.
-
bestowed in a completely gratuitous manner, without any previous merit, but also because it is love which forgives.
-
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)
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
While the biblical narrative does not speak of punishment, the idea is certainly present that man is somehow incomplete, driven by nature to seek in another the part that can make him whole, the idea that only in communion with the opposite sex can he become “complete”.
-
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.
-
Communion draws me out of myself towards him, and thus also towards unity with all Christians. We become “one body”, completely joined in a single existence.
-
Love of God and love of neighbour are now truly united: God incarnate draws us all to himself. We can thus understand how agape also became a term for the Eucharist: there God's own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us.
-
Faith, worship and ethos are interwoven as a single reality which takes shape in our encounter with God's agape.
-
“Worship” itself, Eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn. A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented.
-
Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbour. The concept of “neighbour” is now universalized, yet it remains concrete. Despite being extended to all mankind, it is not reduced to a generic, abstract and undemanding expression of love, but calls for my own practical commitment here and now.
-
Lastly, we should especially mention the great parable of the Last Judgement (cf. Mt 25:31-46), in which love becomes the criterion for the definitive decision about a human life's worth or lack thereof. Jesus identifies himself with those in need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison. “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).
-
Love of God and love of neighbour have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.
-
Saint John's words should rather be interpreted to mean that love of neighbour is a path that leads to the encounter with God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbour also blinds us to God.
-
Love of neighbour is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus. It consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know.
-
Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend.
-
Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave.
-
But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, then my relationship with God will also grow arid.
-
Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me.
-
The saints—consider the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta—constantly renewed their capacity for love of neighbour from their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, and conversely this encounter acquired its real- ism and depth in their service to others.
-
Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment. But both live from the love of God who has loved us first.
-
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.
-
-
31 Oct 11
John Williamson... eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift...
-
eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.
-
God in whom Israel believes, on the other hand, loves with a personal love. His love, moreover, is an elective love: among all the nations he chooses Israel and loves her—but he does so
-
in itself it lacks nothing and does not love:
-
indeed for eve
-
The divine power that Aristotle at the height of Greek philosophy sought to grasp through reflection, is indeed for every being an object of desire and of love —and as the object of love this divinity moves the world[6]—but in itself it lacks nothing and does not love: it is solely the object of lo
-
eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift
-
eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.
-
eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift
-
tremes, the essence of Christianity would be detached from the vital relations fundamental to human existence, and would become a world apart, admirable perhaps, but decisively cut off from the complex fabric of human life. Yet eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the oth
-
eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.
-
eros and
-
eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.
-
This is due first and foremost to the fact that man is a being made up of body and soul. Man is truly himself when his body and soul are intimately united; the challenge of eros can be said to be truly overcome when this unification is achieved. Should he aspire to be pure spirit and to reject the flesh as pertaining to his animal nature alone, then spirit and body would both lose their dignity. On the other hand, should he deny the spirit and consider matter, the body, as the only reality, he would likewise lose his greatness. The epicure Gassendi used to offer Descartes the humorous greeting: “O Soul!” And Descartes would reply: “O Flesh!”.[3] Yet it is neither the spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves. Only when both dimensions are truly united, does man attain his full stature. Only thus is love —eros—able to mature and attain its authentic grandeur.
-
Concretely, what does this path of ascent and purification entail? How might love be experienced so that it can fully realize its human and divine promise? Here we can find a first, important indication in the Song of Songs, an Old Testament book well known to the mystics. According to the interpretation generally held today, the poems contained in this book were originally love-songs, perhaps intended for a Jewish wedding feast and meant to exalt conjugal love. In this context it is highly instructive to note that in the course of the book two different Hebrew words are used to indicate “love”. First there is the word dodim, a plural form suggesting a love that is still insecure, indeterminate and searching. This comes to be replaced by the word ahabà, which the Greek version of the Old Testament translates with the similar-sounding agape, which, as we have seen, becomes the typical expression for the biblical notion of love. By contrast with an indeterminate, “searching” love, this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.
-
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.
-
True, no one has ever seen God as he is. And yet God is not totally invisible to us; he does not remain completely inaccessible. God loved us first, says the Letter of John quoted above (cf. 4:10), and this love of God has appeared in our midst. He has become visible in as much as he “has sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 Jn 4:9). God has made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father
-
Contact with the visible manifestations of God's love can awaken within us a feeling of joy born of the experience of being loved. But this encounter also engages our will and our intellect.
-
-
22 Oct 11
-
love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.
-
love promises infinity, eternity—a reality far greater and totally other than our everyday existence
-
Yet it is neither the spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves. Only when both dimensions are truly united, does man attain his full stature. Only thus is love —eros—able to mature and attain its authentic grandeur
-
eros, as a term to indicate “worldly” love and agape, referring to love grounded in and shaped by faith.
-
descending, oblative love—agape
-
ascending, possessive or covetous love —eros—would be typical of non-Christian, and particularly Greek culture
-
man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.
-
eros which seeks God and agape which passes on the gift received,
-
Fundamentally, “love” is a single reality, but with different dimensions; at different times, one or other dimension may emerge more clearly. Yet when the two dimensions are totally cut off from one another, the result is a caricature or at least an impoverished form of love
-
We have seen that God's eros for man is also totally agape
-
Eros is thus supremely ennobled, yet at the same time it is so purified as to become one with agape
-
-
29 Dec 10
-
03 Aug 10
-
11 Jun 10
-
God is love
-
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should ... have eternal life”
-
Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now nolongerlonger a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.
-
Yet we have also seen that the way to attain this goal is not simply by submitting to instinct. Purification and growth in maturity are called for; and these also pass through the path of renunciation. Far from rejecting or “poisoning” eros, they heal it and restore its true grandeur.
-
agape, which, as we have seen, becomes the typical expression for the biblical notion of love.
-
Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.
-
Jesus Christ – the incarnate love of God
-
“God is love” (1 Jn 4:8)
-
It is from there that our definition of love must begin.
-
love cannot be commanded; it is ultimately a feeling that is either there or not, nor can it be produced by the will.
-
hows that such love is explicitly demanded.
-
God does not demand of us a feeling which we ourselves are incapable of producing
-
He loves us, he makes us see and experience his love, and since he has “loved us first”, love can also blossom as a response within us.
-
Love of neighbour is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus
-
Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment. But both live from the love of God who has loved us first. No longer is it a question, then, of a “commandment” imposed from without and calling for the impossible, but rather of a freely-bestowed experience of love from within, a love which by its very nature must then be shared with others
-
-
08 Mar 10
-
“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16).
-
Add Sticky NoteGod's love for us is fundamental for our lives, and it raises important questions about who God is and who we are.
-
-
It is part of love's growth towards higher levels and inward purification that it now seeks to become definitive, and it does so in a twofold sense: both in the sense of exclusivity (this particular person alone) and in the sense of being “for ever”. Love embraces the whole of existence in each of its dimensions, including the dimension of time. It could hardly be otherwise, since its promise looks towards its definitive goal: love looks to the eternal. 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), as Jesus says throughout the Gospels (cf. Mt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25). In these words, Jesus portrays his own path, which leads through the Cross to the Resurrection: the path of the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in this way bears much fruit. Starting from the depths of his own sacrifice and of the love that reaches fulfilment therein, he also portrays in these words the essence of love and indeed of human life itself.
-
The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.
-
-
18 Feb 10
-
08 Feb 08
Tom MurphyLove 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
encyclicals catholicism christianity theology ethics religion
-
21 Dec 07
-
25 Aug 06
-
Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.
-
neither planned nor willed
-
It is part of love's growth towards higher levels and inward purification that it now seeks to become definitive, and it does so in a twofold sense: both in the sense of exclusivity (this particular person alone) and in the sense of being “for ever”
-
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:
-
“ascending” love
-
“descending” love
-
amor concupiscentiae – amor benevolentiae
-
eros which seeks God and agape which passes on the gift received
-
The divine power that Aristotle at the height of Greek philosophy sought to grasp through reflection, is indeed for every being an object of desire and of love —and as the object of love this divinity moves the world[6]—but in itself it lacks nothing and does not love: it is solely the object of love. The one God in whom Israel believes, on the other hand, loves with a personal love. His love, moreover, is an elective love: among all the nations he chooses Israel and loves her—but he does so precisely with a view to healing the whole human race. God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape.[7]
-
The history of the love-relationship between God and Israel consists, at the deepest level, in the fact that he gives her the Torah, thereby opening Israel's eyes to man's true nature and showing her the path leading to true humanism
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Love can be “commanded” because it has first been given.
-
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.
-
The just ordering of society and the State is a central responsibility of politics. As Augustine once said, a State which is not governed according to justice would be just a bunch of thieves: “Remota itaque iustitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia?”
-
Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics.
-
Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God—an encounter opening up new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason. But it is also a purifying force for reason itself.
-
A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church.
-
Love—caritas—will always prove necessary, even in the most just society.
-
We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need.
-
The direct duty to work for a just ordering of society, on the other hand, is proper to the lay faithful. As citizens of the State, they are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity. So they cannot relinquish their participation “in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good.” [21] The mission of the lay faithful is therefore to configure social life correctly, respecting its legitimate autonomy and cooperating with other citizens according to their respective competences and fulfilling their own responsibility.[22] Even if the specific expressions of ecclesial charity can never be confused with the activity of the State, it still remains true that charity must animate the entire lives of the lay faithful and therefore also their political activity, lived as “social charity”.
-
The Second Vatican Council rightly observed that “among the signs of our times, one particularly worthy of note is a growing, inescapable sense of solidarity between all peoples.”[25] State agencies and humanitarian associations work to promote this, the former mainly through subsidies or tax relief, the latter by making available considerable resources. The solidarity shown by civil society thus significantly surpasses that shown by individuals.
-
Those who work for the Church's charitable organizations must be distinguished by the fact that they do not merely meet the needs of the moment, but they dedicate themselves to others with heartfelt concern, enabling them to experience the richness of their humanity.
-
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.
-
: “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (v. 3). This hymn must be the Magna Carta of all ecclesial service; it sums up all the reflections on love which I have offered throughout this Encyclical Letter.
-
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
-
Love is possible, and we are able to practise it because we are created in the image of God.
-
-
10 Apr 06
-
13 Feb 06
-
29 Jan 06
-
27 Jan 06
-
26 Jan 06
Public Stiky Notes
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.