"Love is God's Very Essence"

At yesterday's Angelus, the Holy Father spent some time speaking about the day's Second Reading for Mass (I Corinthians 12:31-13:13), Saint Paul's wonderful description of love. Pope Benedict XVI himself described this as one of the most beautiful passages of the entire Bible.

The following comes from the Vatican News Service report of his remarks.

"Charity", the Pope explained, "is the 'greatest' gift, which gives value to all the others. ... In the end, when we find ourselves face to face with God, all other gifts will fail and all that will be left to last for eternity is love, because God is love and we will be like unto Him, in perfect communion with Him.

"For now", he added, "as long as we are in this world, charity is the distinctive mark of Christians. It is the synthesis of all their lives, of what they believe and what they do..."

The Holy Father went on: "Love is God's very essence, it is the meaning of creation and history, it is the light that gives goodness and beauty to the existence of each man and woman. At the same time love is, so to say, the 'style' of God and of believers, it is the behaviour of those who, responding to the love of God, order their lives as a gift of self to God and to neighbour."

God is Love

The First Letter of Saint John, which is assigned as the first reading for these days of the Christmas, is one of my favorites. Written towards the end of the first century, it is thought that this letter and the Gospel of Saint John come from the same school of Christian thought).

According to the introduction from the New American Bible, the author "insists that the concrete Christian life brings to life the deeper realities of the Gospel." In other words, we have to walk the talk.

The portions on love are most compelling to me. Love is not a by-product of faith...God is love! Four years ago this past Christmas Day, Pope Benedict XVI released his first encyclical which began with this famous Truth from 1 John 4:16:

God is love,
and he who abides in love abides in God,
and God abides in him.

This love, the author reminds us, comes first from God to each human being.

In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

The letter continues the discourse on love and the importance of loving neighbor and keeping the Lord's commandments.

These passages of Scripture are part of why I began this blog. Love, according to Saint Paul (I Cor. 13) is patient and kind, not jealous, pompous, inflated or rude, it forgives, it doesn't look out for self first, it is not quick-tempered and always rejoices in the truth. These are concrete manifestations of love, and for me they have also help to discern when I am truly expressing love and when I am not.

If "love is of God" (I John 4:7), then when we experience impatience, unkindness, hate, jealousy, rudeness or arrogance, these are not of God, because they are not love.

Pope Benedict's Encyclical, "God is Love," reminds us,

In a world in which the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. For this reason, I wish in my first Encyclical to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others (1).

Community, Unity, Love

The Holy Father often uses his time during his Wednesday General Audiences to teach about the great saints. Yesterday (September 9), he preached about St. Peter Damian, the 11th-century monk, reformer, and "intrepid man of the Church," according to Pope Benedict XVI.

There were two very profound thoughts in the pope's talk, as related by the Vatican News Service. First, he spoke about St. Peter's life as a hermit, where he sought solitude and rigorous self-denial and penance as a way to break his ties to the world and deepen his communion with the Lord. Pope Benedict added:

"Today too, even if we are not monks, it is important to know how to create silence within ourselves in order to listen to the voice of God. ... Learning the Word of God in prayer and meditation is the path of life."

For most of us, silence is difficult. But it can't be a luxury, for indeed God uses the silence to speak to us. Even in our public prayer, the liturgy, silence is required so that we may hear the Lord's voice and let it speak to our inmost being.

However, as Christians, we don't live for ourselves only. As wonderful as our communion with the Lord may be, it calls us to something more. Pope Benedict continued:

"[C]ommunion with Christ creates a unity of love among Christians..."

How many times have we heard people (including ourselves), in faithful zeal and love of the Lord, deny this Communion not in word, but in lack of love? We speak often of the secularization of society and the Church. Perhaps this is most clear when the language of division encroaches upon our Church. In our country, this often is fueled by political differences as well.

I sometimes pray that I may see others as the Lord sees them. We know that God has created all people in his image and that each life is important. He loved us first (I John 4:19), even before we loved him and he will love us to the end (John 13:1). He loves us with all our faults, yet he wishes us to overcome these; he loves us even while in sin, but he seeks our repentance; he loves us even while in darkness, but he leads us to the light.

And what is love? According to the Apostle Paul (I Cor. 13:4-13) it is patient, kind, neither jealous nor pompous, not inflated or rude, it is not selfish and not quick-tempered, and doesn't brood over injury. Love doesn't rejoice when things go wrong but in the truth. It endures for ever in hope.

For me, this is how I discern a person's message of faith (including my own). Are they (or I) kind and patient? If the answer is "yes," love is there (and God is love). Are they arrogant and pompous? Rude, rash, selfish? If so, then love is not there. And when love isn't there, it doesn't let us off the hook. We still have to love that person or those people who may dislike us or even hate us.

This is a life-long project (at least it is for me!). Pope Benedict's words about St. Peter Damian help keep us focused and remember:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. (I John 4:7-8, NAB)