Commentaries on the encyclical have raised the question of whether the Pope’s tremendous emphasis in the second section on the tradition of charity from the earliest centuries of the Church (e.g., Augustine: “If you see charity, you see the Trinity”) does not weaken the Church’s social teaching and commitment to justice. Some worry that his words may be misunderstood.Deus Caritas Est is very great and very beautiful. What is missing in most of the commentaries on it is the tremendous challenge of how to live this out. It is easy to talk or sing about love, sweet love, but to put flesh and blood on the profound concepts Benedict gathers in this encyclical, to live them, is another thing.
Dorothy Day reminded us, “The greatest challenge of the day is: How to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us. When we begin to take the lowest place, to wash the feet of others, to love our brothers and sisters with that burning love, that passion, which led to the Cross, then we can truly say, ‘Now, I have begun.'” ( Loaves and Fishes )
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