Paul or John?

In paragraph 38 of his first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas est, Pope Benedict XVI writes: "In his hymn to charity (see 1Co 13), St. Paul teaches us that charity is always more than simple activity". Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned - if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever" (v.3). He thus concludes saying, "This hymn must be the Great Charter of the entire ecclesial service; all the reflections on love, that I have formulated in this Encyclical Letter, are summed up in it".

With these words, the Holy Father himself is personally concerned of offering the interpretative authentic key of his writing. We cannot presume of ignoring it.

Must we, then, start from Paul? Yet the title and the beginning of the letter suggest John!

How is it?

In reality, the Biblical references present in the papal encyclical presuppose a kind of centrality of the Pauline reflection, starting from the text of Gal 5, 6 on active love. 2 Co 5, 14 is also a Pauline text, which gives us the motivation of the Encyclical itself, when the Holy Father, treasuring up the thought of Paul, writes repeatedly, "The love of Christ urges us".

All this means that what matters for Pope Benedict is to reassert the very close link existing between love, seen as a sentiment, an interior tension, and charity. This, besides verifying concretely the authenticity of love, relays us to the love of Christ, in a very clear manner.

With this reference, the Holy Father shows simultaneously the love whose source is Christ, a lover per excellence, and the love understood as natural echo, the overflowing of the love received from Him.

In fact, after a lengthy exposition, a particularly new way for a papal encyclical, on the description of the two forms of love shared by literature and by the public opinion, that of the eros  and that of philia, at the end the Pope leads back his talk to the proposal of the agape. He fetches in plenty from the Old and the New Testament.

Therefore, it is not from philosophical or poetical reflections, nor from specifically anthropological foundations, but from the Scripture that the Holy Father draws the deep convictions leading him to write his encyclical.  What He writes is simultaneously old and new, as simultaneously old  and new is the commandment of love from the First letter of John, so very much determining in the papal reflection.

Old and New Testament

It seems that we can trace back the starting point of this reflection by Pope Ratzinger to the book of love par excellence, namely The Song of Songs, in which the Holy Father finds two different words to indicate love (n.6): dodim and ahabā. This allows him to bring to evidence the insecurity underlying the use of the first one and the overcoming of the undetermined character, still under search, underlying the second one.

The reference to the translation from the Hebrew word ahabā into the Greek agape allows him to specify that with this latter term we express "the love that becomes a discovery of the other", thus an overcoming of the "previously dominating egoistic character".

In fact, "now love becomes care for or of the other. It does no longer seek itself, the immersion into the exhilaration of happiness, but it rather seeks the good of the loved person : it becomes renunciation, ready for sacrifice, indeed seeking it".

The teaching of Jesus rests on this Old Testament foundation, when he says, "Any one who tries to preserve his life will lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe" (Luke 17.33). The whole personal life of Jesus is founded on this intuition, "which leads him to resurrection through the cross".

In fact, "the real newness of the New Testament does not consist in new ideas, but in the very figure of Jesus, who gives flesh and blood to the concepts -an unheard realism" (no. 12).

""Starting from the centre of his personal sacrifice and in love that reaches its fulfilment in it", Jesus synthesises the essence of love, of human existence in the tiny parable of the wheat grain, which falls on to the earth, dies and thus bears fruit in plenty (see no.6).

Ascending and descending love

In the light of this reference, entirely Biblical, the Holy Father highlights his intuitions on the ascending love, understood as eros, linking it, in an indissoluble way, with the descending love and observing, "In reality eros and agape - ascending and descending love- never allow to get separated (no. 7).  He also brings to evidence that, in this indissoluble reality, the agape has an undisputed primacy, because the eros, without agape, loses also its own nature".

I believe that this is a central statement due, once again, to its Biblical foundation, which supports it. The metaphor of the source enlightens all this. The Holy Father writes. "Sure - as the Lord says- man can become a source where rivers of living water flow from (see Jo 7. 37-38). However, to become such a source, he himself must keep on drinking from that first, original source, namely from Christ, from whose pierced heart the love of God flows" (Jo 19, 34).

After all "Love can be 'commanded' because it is previously donated", the pope says, summing up the teaching of John (no.14).

This primacy of love flowing from Him, from the Crucified, is the basis of every other possibility of love.

Becoming for a while a disciple of Gregory the Great, the Holy Father draws from it an analogous primacy of contemplation over action, without implying a degree of superiority of the contemplative over the active life. It is only a primacy of origin, in analogy with God Trinity. In fact, the Father before the Son, is the origin and source of divinity, without subtracting anything at all from the perfect equality of the Father with the Son in the common embrace of the Holy Spirit.

I think that the intuition of Pope Ratzinger about the equal dignity of the active and contemplative life is fundamental. Augustine and Gregory the Great, share this intuition, speaking clearly of gemina caritas. With a single blow, it eliminates centuries of contra-positions and supposed superiority of the one over the other form of life. They supported the mentioned superiority without any sufficient theological awareness and channelled it towards useless, at times lacerating, discussions, which have damaged considerably the concept of consecrated life.

I think that all those who dedicate themselves to reflect on the Biblical-theological foundations of consecrated life, could draw advantages from these suggestions of the Pope, a theologian.

The deepening of this thematic, which Pope Benedict fulfils with Gregory the Great, is of fundamental importance.

The Holy Father writes, "In this context, St. Gregory refers to St. Paul, who is raised right up to the great mysteries of God, thus as he descends from up he is able to be all to all (see 2Co 12, 2-4; 1Co 9,22). Moreover, he mentions the example of Moses who kept on entering the sacred tend and staying in dialogue with God, so that he may then be available for his people.  Within (the tend) he raised up through contemplation, while outside (the tend) he allowed the sufferers to approach him: intus in contemplatione rapitur, foris infirmantium negotiis urgetur"  (7).

Love in the Fathers of the Church

Actually, all this leads the reader unavoidably, and the Holy Father is deeply aware of it, to the traditional theology of the Fathers on the image of God reflected in the interiority of man. "Yes, a unification of man with God exists -the original dream of man- but, as the Pope explains, this unification is not seeking into the anonymous ocean of the divine; it is a love creating unity in which both -God and man- keep their identity and yet become fully one. "Anyone who attaches himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Co 6, 17).

The Holy Father starts from this mysterious unity in distinction, very fundamental in the Christian Biblical theology, not only to suggest some points of Christian anthropology, but also to develop further his particular concept of love between man and woman. Thus Pope Ratzinger explains, "Adam finds the help he needs: 'this time she is flesh of my flesh, bone from my bones' (Gn 2,23).  We can see on the background of this narration the same concepts as in the myth narrated by Plato" (no.11); this, however, is not against the fundamental affirmation that man "becomes 'complete' only in the communion with the other sex".

This allows us to understand the prophecy on Adam in the book of Genesis, where we read, "This is why man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife and they become one flesh" (Gn 2, 24).

With extreme serenity, the Holy Father can conclude: first, that the eros is rooted in the very nature of man (a totally obvious statement, starting from the Biblical intuition, yet sounding revolutionary to some contemporary ears). Second, that the eros inscribed in the creation of man supposes a marriage understood as "a bond characterised by oneness definitiveness" (even this is totally obvious, yet difficult to be accepted in the contemporary society).

Fully aware of similar difficulties, the Holy Father, does not step behind, but insists on his convictions, fetched from the Biblical teaching, and synthesises it as follows," The monogamy of matrimony corresponds to the monotheistic image of God".  It follows that "matrimony based on exclusive and definitive love, becomes the icon of God's relation with his people and vice-versa". This establishes solemnly the principle that "the way of loving God becomes the measure of human love" (11).

The Principle, in relation with the mystery of love made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, allows Pope Benedict to reach the abyssal depth of what he has enunciated at the beginning of his encyclical, with the words of 1 John 4,8, proclaiming that "God is love" to the whole world.

Pope Ratzinger explains, "We can contemplate this truth in the death of Christ on the cross",  because it is just "starting from there that we can define love". In fact, "it is only from this vision that the Christian finds the way of his living and loving" (12).  This way of living and loving remains exquisitely personal. It founds theologically the different choices of Christian life, from the natural fulfilment in marriage, to the very mysterious human fulfilment of men and women, whom a very particular glance of the Crucified himself calls to religious life, realised in Him.

The very close link between the sacrifice on the cross and the Eucharist is now totally obvious and natural for every baptised person. It is just as we naturally welcome the observation that "the agape of God comes to us with his body in the Eucharist, to continue his work in us and through us".  It is only "by starting form the sacramental-Christology foundation that we can correctly understand the teaching of Jesus on love" (no.14):  "As there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf" (1Co 10,17), St Paul says.

Pope Benedict comments, "Union with Christ is, at the same time, union with all others to whom he offers himself. I cannot keep Christ only for myself", nor can I deceive myself of neglecting completely to pay attention to the other, "wanting to be only 'pious' and "to fulfil my religious duties". This would whither up my relation with God (no.18); neither can I have just a "correct" behaviour with others, without love" (18).

Love is not just a sentiment -the Holy Father specifies- "the sentiment can be a wonderful initial spark, but it is not the totality of love. Mature love involves all the potentialities of man and encloses man in his entirety". This maturity "joins intellect, will and sentiment in the totalling act of love", in a constantly becoming process, since love is never over and completed" (no.17, passim).

"Love grows -Pope Benedict concludes- through love. Love is divine because it comes from God. Through a unifying process, it transforms us into a "we", which overcomes our divisions and makes us one, until God is "all in all" (1Co 15, 28). (no. 18).

The services of charity

The second part of the Encyclical begins with a real symphony of Biblical texts from which the Holy Father sums up the main concepts expressed in the first part and launches again the talk on love, opening it to a multitude of services of charity in action.

In this part we find two fundamental paradigmatic proposals, set one before the other. First: the Trinitarian dimension of charity, supported by the splendid quotation from St. Augustine, "Whenever you see charity, you see the Trinity". Second comes the reference to the original koinonia of the Church, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (see 19-20), with the precious reference to the Spirit. This is a "force transforming the heart of the ecclesial Community, so that it may be a witness to the Father's love, who wants to turn humanity into a unique family in His Son (no.19).

Out of this comes the exalting consequence of the service of charity in the Church, understood as "expression of a love that seeks the integral good of man, his evangelisation through the Word and the Sacraments, seeking his promotion in the various areas of life and human activities.

Therefore love is -as the pope underlines- the service, which the church carries on to come constantly to the rescue of men's sufferings and needs, even the material ones" (no. 19).

It is a task, which the Church can never omit "at all levels: from the local community, to the particular church, to the universal church in her global reality (no.20).

The church can never neglect her service of charity, just as she can never omit the Sacraments and the Word (no.22).  I would say that we can find the synthesis of the Encyclical proposing part in this triad: Service, Sacraments, Word. Though clearly obvious in the teaching of the New Testament, the elevation of the service of charity to the level of the Sacraments and the Word, together with the above-mentioned equal dignity between active and contemplative life, probably constitutes a particular emphasis, which pope Benedict intends to give to his pastoral service and his universal ministry

I think that here we find a spontaneous invitation for all the components of the ecclesial body. It is an invitation to take seriously the accentuation of Pope Benedict for an adequate deepening at all generation and cultural levels , both in the lay and consecrated life,  that may lead us to discover in the gemina caritas  the objective or the end of our common Christian belonging.

With this regard, the Holy Father offers a real outline of work when, synthesising the two essential data, he writes:

a)       The intimate nature of the Church expresses a triple task: proclamation of the Word of

God (kerygma-martyria); celebration of the Sacraments (leiturgia); service of charity (diakonia).

These tasks presuppose one another and we cannot separate them.

For the Church, charity is not an activity of social-assistance, which others could take care of,  but it belongs to her very nature. It is an indefeasible expression of her very essence.

b) The Church is the family of God in the world. In this family, there must be no one who suffers the lack of necessary things. However, the caritas-agape must cross the frontiers of the Church" 8no.25).

The ecumenical dimension of charity is out of discussion. It is obvious also the political commitment of the believers for as just as possible human society. In fact, in another patristic pearl proposed by Pope Ratzinger, St. Augustine says, Remota itaque iustitia  quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia?",  that is: "what else can kingdoms be without justice, if not theft?". This is a very severe judgement against any political institution which does not scrupulously put itself at the service of justice.

The political commitment must keep in view that "the distinction of what is due to Caesar and what to God (see Mt. 22, 21) belongs to every Christian structure.

Particularly important for the believers enjoying the special call of consecrated life is the reminder of the Holy Father to guarantee "the formation of the heart" (see no.31).

Formation must be such as to realize "the encounter with God in Christ, which generates love. An encounter that opens the soul towards the other, so that the love of neighbours may no longer be a commandment imposed externally, but a consequence of faith, which becomes active in love (see Gal 5, 6).

The programme of the Christian .the programme of the Good Samaritan, of Jesus- is "a heart, which can see", the Holy Father explains further.  Such a heart can see the place needing love and can act accordingly (see no.31). It does all this in a liberal attitude, scrupulously deprived of duplicity, without ever leaving aside neither God nor Christ, since it is a matter of the whole man and "often the absence of God is the root of deep sufferings" (no. 31).

Conclusion

The Pope concludes: "The Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is right to be silent about Him, allowing love alone to speak. He knows that God is love (see 1 John 4, 8) and makes himself present the moment in which we do nothing else but love … It follows that the best defence of God and of man is only love".

There could not have been a more beautiful conclusion in an Encyclical Letter dedicated only to love. In fact, we receive a provocation to freedom from these words of the Holy Father. It is the provocation of chasing away, once for all, from us and from our interlocutors, every moralistic, proselyte and ideological worry, which might obscure the limpidity of God's love, poured on us with the most precious blood of Christ, which continues to permeate the Church and every single faithful, thanks to the ineffable gift of the Holy Spirit.

The last part of the Encyclical reveals that Pope Ratzinger is aware of how empty words, activities, even those of a Pope, can be, without the testimony of a life which,  according to what Paul says in his very beautiful hymn of 1Co,13, makes of agape the source, the centre and the apex of a life of faith.