Education in Faith Sunday

The Irish Bishops have designated Sunday 4th February as “Education in Faith Sunday” and to mark the occasion are paying special attention to Pope Benedict’s first Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).

The following is a summary of Deus Caritas Est written by the late Fr. Frank Mullan, C.M. on 12th March 2006.

Naturally there was much speculation about his first Encyclical Letter, what was it going to be about?  Would it address some of the more controversial topics of the day?  It was never likely that it would.  Instead he took as his theme what he himself calls the very heart of the Christian Faith, namely God is Love.  All true human love is a sharing in the love of God.  In a world where the name of God is often associated with wrath, anger and even violence the message that God is love is timely and significant.  That is why he tells us “in this my very first Letter I want to speak of the love God lavishes on us and which we in turn must share with others.  And so, all human love, to be real, must have a share in God’s won love for us.”

But, there’s a problem:  today the word “love” is used in a wide variety of meanings, love of country, love of parents, love of self etc… But, there’s one meaning that stands out, love between man and woman, sexual love where body and soul are joined and human beings can experience ecstatic pleasure and happiness.  Christianity and especially the Catholic Church have sometimes been attacked as being opposed to and suspicious of human sexual love.  The truth he says is that what the Church always attacked is a warped and destructive form of it.  It must never be an all out gratification of one’s own desires.  Sexuality ought never be used and exploited at will, otherwise it simply becomes a commodity and the dignity of man and woman is de-humanised.

It is in the words and actions of Jesus that the love of God shines out.  It is God who searches out the lost sheep, who goes out to meet the Prodigal Son, Christ’s death for us on the Cross is love in it most radical form.  In our Mass, today that offering of Christ remains with us and Jesus invites us to join our offering to His.

The second part of the Letter deals with God’s love at work in the Church today.  From the beginning, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles, the early Christians shared their goods with the poor, and charitable activities have always marked the work of the Church down the years.  In recent times, though, there has been a change.  Now it is said that what the poor need is not charity but justice and a new social order.

Communism failed to provide the answer and it must be admitted that Church leadership was slow to react.  However, in the 20th century there was a great outpouring of Catholic Social teaching in the Encyclical letters of the Popes.  The Church, they said, must not try to replace the State, but neither must it remain on the sidelines in the struggle for social justice.  Pope Benedict praises the work today of all the Church Agencies working for the poor at home and abroad.

To summarise:  the first part of the Letter is a strong reminder that GOD IS LOVE, that all true love comes from Him.  He loved us first and we can share in it.  The second half points out the part we play in spreading God’s love here on earth by all our efforts for the poor and marginalised.  It’s worth noting here that the generous response in St. Peter’s to the collections shows that we appreciate the part all of us can play. 

Fr. Brian Moore, CM     

4th February, 2007