Thursday, May 31, 2012

On "Deus Caritas Est"

I am reading the encyclicals of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in obedience to a homilist who, at the end of last semester, suggested Deus Caritas Est and Spe Salvi as summer reading.

Obedience has seldom yielded more fruit for me! As I read Deus Caritas Est, an encyclical on Christian love given Christmas day of 2005, I could not believe my eyes. The Holy Father seemed to be saying, paragraph after paragraph, what has been on my mind for the past four years. My copy is copiously highlighted and peppered with notes like “BRILLIANT” and “Was just thinking of this….” I am honored and privileged to say that I have the same thoughts, judgments, and desires as a pope.

I wanted desperately to blog about it, writing a critical essay with lots of intelligent comments. I sat down to do just this, but now that I look again at the encyclical all I can say is a total, emphatic “YES.”

I won’t resay what Pope Benedict XVI says so well. So read it! (It’s only 25 pages long, and it’s glorious.) My copy with notes.

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