Cindy Wooden
CNS
CNS
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Understanding human life as a totally free gift of God's love and love as a gift that seeks nothing in return, people can learn to love one another without fear and without exploitation, said Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago.
In writing his encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love"), Pope Benedict XVI was trying to help modern men and women understand the greatness of God's love and of human love, the cardinal said.
Cardinal George offered theological reflections on the pope's encyclical Jan. 24 during the closing session of a Vatican conference on the encyclical organized by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which promotes and coordinates Catholic charitable activity. The cardinal is a member of the council.
The cardinal told conference participants that love has to be seen in the light of "God's self-revelation if the message of the encyclical is to be clearly understood."
The Trinity itself is "a unity created by the total self-giving of the three divine persons, each to the others, for the others, in the others," the cardinal said.
Again, acting only out of a love that neither needed nor asked for anything in return, God created each human being, he said.
Even on earth, the cardinal said, love must strive to reflect the totally free gift that is God's love.
"In our culture we presuppose that there must be a separation between eros -- understood as human desire, sexually expressed -- and agape," a selfless, spiritual love, the cardinal said.
"The pope tries to overcome, and I think does so successfully, a separation between eros and agape by pointing to the inner movement of erotic love toward a generosity between a man and a woman based on the total self-giving of one to the other for the sake of the other alone," he said.
"Love becomes ecstasy when a person attains the freedom to give himself completely to another, where there is, in the loving, a purification of desire," he said.
If agape does not become part of the loving relationship, he said, the love of eros decays, which is why "pornography is an addiction that is never self-satisfying."
Cardinal George said modern culture has magnified the idea of love as spontaneous over the reality of love as involving choices to the point that people talk about being swept away and losing control.
Yet if passion is the essence of love, he said, it actually involves the loss of the freedom people claim to worry about when they hesitate making a permanent commitment to one another.
Cardinal George said Pope Benedict also tries to address modern cultures' separation between love and justice.
"What is seen in the encyclical is that, even if justice were to be established, love would always be necessary" for economic and political systems to safeguard, promote and defend the human person, he said.
An Iranian bishop asked Cardinal George what practical message the encyclical would give to a world in which a few rich and powerful countries try to control all the economic and political decisions of the rest of the world, ensuring they stay in a position of poverty and weakness.
The cardinal answered, "I sometimes try to tell my fellow Americans, 'The world resents us, not because we are rich and free ... they resent us because too often we are blind and deaf,'" not understanding the injustice others suffer or being willing to change.
However, Cardinal George said, there also must be a deeper analysis of the factors, including the corruption and mismanagement in the developing world, that prevent a more equal sharing of the world's goods.
People in rich countries must hear and take seriously the concerns and criticisms of people in poorer countries, he said, but anyone concerned about love and justice also must ask, "If the United States of America ceased to exist tomorrow, would there still be poverty and injustice in Iran or anywhere else in the world? I think there would."
Cardinal George said the pope's new encyclical, which was scheduled to be released Jan. 25, also emphasizes the identity of the church as a sacrament of God's love in the world.
"From this, it must follow that the church is as committed to the service of charity in the form of Christ-like love as she is to the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments," he said.
Motivated by love, he said, the church also must form partnerships with other groups and organizations engaged in charity and philanthropy.
"The church has no corner, no monopoly on work for the poor and for the elimination of economic and political injustice," Cardinal George said. "The work of charity is ecumenical and universal both in its scope and its workers."
In writing his encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love"), Pope Benedict XVI was trying to help modern men and women understand the greatness of God's love and of human love, the cardinal said.
Cardinal George offered theological reflections on the pope's encyclical Jan. 24 during the closing session of a Vatican conference on the encyclical organized by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which promotes and coordinates Catholic charitable activity. The cardinal is a member of the council.
The cardinal told conference participants that love has to be seen in the light of "God's self-revelation if the message of the encyclical is to be clearly understood."
The Trinity itself is "a unity created by the total self-giving of the three divine persons, each to the others, for the others, in the others," the cardinal said.
Again, acting only out of a love that neither needed nor asked for anything in return, God created each human being, he said.
Even on earth, the cardinal said, love must strive to reflect the totally free gift that is God's love.
"In our culture we presuppose that there must be a separation between eros -- understood as human desire, sexually expressed -- and agape," a selfless, spiritual love, the cardinal said.
"The pope tries to overcome, and I think does so successfully, a separation between eros and agape by pointing to the inner movement of erotic love toward a generosity between a man and a woman based on the total self-giving of one to the other for the sake of the other alone," he said.
"Love becomes ecstasy when a person attains the freedom to give himself completely to another, where there is, in the loving, a purification of desire," he said.
If agape does not become part of the loving relationship, he said, the love of eros decays, which is why "pornography is an addiction that is never self-satisfying."
Cardinal George said modern culture has magnified the idea of love as spontaneous over the reality of love as involving choices to the point that people talk about being swept away and losing control.
Yet if passion is the essence of love, he said, it actually involves the loss of the freedom people claim to worry about when they hesitate making a permanent commitment to one another.
Cardinal George said Pope Benedict also tries to address modern cultures' separation between love and justice.
"What is seen in the encyclical is that, even if justice were to be established, love would always be necessary" for economic and political systems to safeguard, promote and defend the human person, he said.
An Iranian bishop asked Cardinal George what practical message the encyclical would give to a world in which a few rich and powerful countries try to control all the economic and political decisions of the rest of the world, ensuring they stay in a position of poverty and weakness.
The cardinal answered, "I sometimes try to tell my fellow Americans, 'The world resents us, not because we are rich and free ... they resent us because too often we are blind and deaf,'" not understanding the injustice others suffer or being willing to change.
However, Cardinal George said, there also must be a deeper analysis of the factors, including the corruption and mismanagement in the developing world, that prevent a more equal sharing of the world's goods.
People in rich countries must hear and take seriously the concerns and criticisms of people in poorer countries, he said, but anyone concerned about love and justice also must ask, "If the United States of America ceased to exist tomorrow, would there still be poverty and injustice in Iran or anywhere else in the world? I think there would."
Cardinal George said the pope's new encyclical, which was scheduled to be released Jan. 25, also emphasizes the identity of the church as a sacrament of God's love in the world.
"From this, it must follow that the church is as committed to the service of charity in the form of Christ-like love as she is to the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments," he said.
Motivated by love, he said, the church also must form partnerships with other groups and organizations engaged in charity and philanthropy.
"The church has no corner, no monopoly on work for the poor and for the elimination of economic and political injustice," Cardinal George said. "The work of charity is ecumenical and universal both in its scope and its workers."
- Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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