I read the other day that the pope had issued his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est and downloaded a copy from the Vatican's website (For the encyclical, go to http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm and then to "latest updates". The title derives from the statement in the gospel of John that "God is love" and is a two-part treatise on the subject of the unity of erotic or possessory love (eros in the original Greek) and a broader, self-sacrificing love (agape in the original Greek) and the role of love in the Church's charitable activities.
On the first subject, Benedict somewhat unexpectedly cheered on the subject of erotic love, calling it a "foretaste of the divine" and recognized that the church has perhaps accurately been perceived as something of a wet blanket on the subject in the past. But that love, neat as it is, he writes (not in precisely those words, obviously - he is, after all, German), must grow into something deeper, which is a broader self-sacrificing love - love that becomes concern and care for the other. He rejects the concept that these are two different things - they were, after all, expressed using different terms in the original gospels, which simply translate into our word "love" - but notes that they reflect God's relationship to us, which is also both eros or possessory love and agape or self-sacrificing love.
I'm not saying that he "cheered on" erotic love to be funny - I say it because that's precisely what he did. Setting aside that I am phenomenally uncomfortable with the Holy Father using the word "erotic" or "sex" in a sentence (don't even get me started on the "foretaste of the divine" comment - I'm definitely headed for some counseling after reading that), he is clearly advocating the pros of the concept of erotic love, and the only negative is in any cheapening of it by branding it as a mere bodily function - a commodity - because it prevents eros from attaining its "true grandeur." No, seriously, the Pope actually said that - love apparently is a many-splendored thing according to the Vatican. (No word on whether we'll see nihil obstats popping up in books in the married couples section of the local adult bookstore - "Mrs. Debbie Does the Diocese of Dallas" perhaps). You ever wanted to know what Dr. Ruth would be like as Pope - well this is apparently it. I just can't get the image of the pope winking at me out of my head now. We actually have some spiritual support from the guy with the funky hat for the concept that erotic love is a good thing, and a promise that it can grow into something even better.
The second part of the encyclical deals with the practice of love by the Church. The pope emphatically states that charity is one of the three most basic purposes of the church, and has been since a very early date. (The three are proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia)). The Church cannot be a political creature - the just ordering of society is the role of politics and while it can help inform what is right, it cannot become political - but it must practice charity.
One of my favorite parts is where Benedict rejects the concept - advocated by Marxism (and most recently by the U.S. House of Representatives) - that sometimes larger political concerns justify ceasing (or in the House version, criminalizing when practiced to illegal aliens) the practice of charity. "One does not make the world more human by refusing to act humanely here and now," he observes. Actually Jesus was quite a bit more blunt when He said “[a]s you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). Somehow I can't see the guy who told the story of the Good Samaritan endorsing a footnote that says that, of course, it doesn't apply to Mexicans. What would Jesus do? I think he'd vote to send that puppy back to committee to die.
One other thing that he says that I particularly appreciated was his rejection of charity for the purpose of proselytism. "Love is free; it is not practised as a way of achieving other ends," he writes. This does not mean that charitable activity must somehow leave God and Christ aside, he goes on to say, but "a pure and generous love is the best witness to the God in whom we believe and by whom we are driven to love. A Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak." (Emphasis added). Does this pope rock or what? He actually thinks that maybe God's love can come across through our actions, without our cramming our faith down someone's throat.
In conclusion, I found the encyclical to be far easier reading than I had thought it would be. It was clear, it was persuasive, and it was startlingly (given the preconceptions I had about Benedict) "loving." It wasn't the hellfire and brimstone sermon I was expecting, but rather a celebration of, and an exhortation to, love.