"Believing in Charity Calls Forth Charity"

“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”

(1 John 4:16)

 

The celebration of Lent, in the context of the Year of Faith, offers us a valuable opportunity to meditate on the relationship between faith and charity: between believing in God – the God of Jesus Christ – and love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which guides us on the path of devotion to God and others….

 

Christians are people who have been conquered by Christ’s love and accordingly, under the influence of that love – “Caritas Christi urget nos” (2 Corinthians 5:14) – they are profoundly open to loving their neighbour in concrete ways (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 33). This attitude arises primarily from the consciousness of being loved, forgiven, and even served by the Lord, who bends down to wash the feet of the Apostles and offers himself on the Cross to draw humanity into God’s love.

 

“Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! … Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light – and in the end, the only light – that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working” (ibid., 39). All this helps us to understand that the principal distinguishing mark of Christians is precisely “love grounded in and shaped by faith” (ibid., 7)….

 

Faith is knowing the truth and adhering to it (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4); charity is “walking” in the truth (cf. Ephesians 4:15). Through faith we enter into friendship with the Lord, through charity this friendship is lived and cultivated (cf. John 15:14ff). Faith causes us to embrace the commandment of our Lord and Master; charity gives us the happiness of putting it into practice (cf. John 13:13-17)….

 

Excerpts from:

Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for Lent 2013

For the complete text, please visit:  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20121015_lent-2013_en.html

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/believing-in-charity-calls-forth-charity-papal-mes
http://www.news.va/en/news/popes-lenten-message-2013-believing-in-charity-cal
http://www.news.va/en/news/cardinal-sarah-faith-and-charity-are-two-sides-of

 

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