DEUS CARITAS EST

The popes first encyclical has been greatly anticipated for several months as many (including myself) hope to gleen an incite into what the Papacy of Pope Benedict will hold for the world. This is how Pope Benedict's first encyclical Link DEUS CARITAS EST (God is Love) starts.

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”

Much of the encyclical involves going over how eros and agape are gifts from God and are actually a reflection of His love for us. There is much misunderstanding in the world today over what love actually is. The pope explains that the misunderstanding concerns the relationship between eros (romantic love) and agape (charity) love. This is due to the worlds divorcing of eros from agape love which is devinely interconnected and is never meant to be seperated. It is only through this balance that we discover God's love for us.

The Pope continues

"The key to regaining this balance, he said, lies in a personal relationship with God and an understanding of the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. He said Christ gives the ultimate lesson in "love of neighbor," which means: "I love even the person whom I do not like or even know."

This is a back to basics message. The message that every catholic should have learned in first grade. The fact that the pope feels the need to preach this gives pause to how bad the state of catholicism is in the world in general and Europe in particular.