SUMMARY:
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BELIEVING IN CHARITY CALLS FORTH CHARITY: PAPAL MESSAGE FOR LENT 2013
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CARDINAL SARAH: FAITH AND CHARITY ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
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AUDIENCES
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
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BELIEVING
IN CHARITY CALLS FORTH CHARITY: PAPAL MESSAGE FOR LENT 2013
Vatican
City, 1 February 2013 (VIS) – "Believing in Charity Calls
Forth Charity: 'We have come to know and to believe in the love God
has for us' (1 Jn 4:16)" is the title of the Holy Father's
Lenten Message this year. The document, published in eight languages
(German, Arabic, Spanish, French, English, Italian, Polish, and
Portuguese) is dated, from the Vatican, 15 October 2012. Following is
the complete text of the document.
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
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.
1.
Faith as a response to the love of God
In
my first Encyclical, I offered some thoughts on the close
relationship between the theological virtues of faith and charity.
Setting out from Saint John’s fundamental assertion: "We have
come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”, I observed
that “being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a
lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives
life a new horizon and a decisive direction … Since God has first
loved us, love is now no longer a mere ‘command’; it is the
response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us”.
Faith is this personal adherence?which involves all our faculties?to
the revelation of God’s gratuitous and “passionate” love for
us, fully revealed in Jesus Christ. The encounter with God who is
Love engages not only the heart but also the intellect:
“Acknowledgement of the living God is one path towards love, and
the ‘yes’ of our will to his will unites our intellect, will and
sentiments in the all-embracing act of love. But this process is
always open-ended; love is never ‘finished’ and complete”.
Hence, for all Christians, and especially for “charity workers”,
there is a need for faith, for “that encounter with God in Christ
which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others. As a
result, love of neighbour will no longer be for them a commandment
imposed, so to speak, from without, but a consequence deriving from
their faith, a faith which becomes active through love”. Christians
are people who have been conquered by Christ’s love and
accordingly, under the influence of that love?“Caritas Christi
urget nos”? they are profoundly open to loving their neighbour in
concrete ways. This attitude arises primarily from the consciousness
of being loved, forgiven, and even served by the Lord, who bends down
to was h 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”. All this helps us
to understand that the principal distinguishing mark of Christians is
precisely “love grounded in and shaped by faith”.
2.
Charity as life in faith
The
entire Christian life is a response to God’s love. The first
response is precisely faith as the acceptance, filled with wonder and
gratitude, of the unprecedented divine initiative that precedes us
and summons us. And the “yes” of faith marks the beginning of a
radiant story of friendship with the Lord, which fills and gives full
meaning to our whole life. But it is not enough for God that we
simply accept his gratuitous love. Not only does he love us, but he
wants to draw us to himself, to transform us in such a profound way
as to bring us to say with Saint Paul: “it is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me”.
When
we make room for the love of God, then we become like him, sharing in
his own charity. If we open ourselves to his love, we allow him to
live in us and to bring us to love with him, in him and like him;
only then does our faith become truly “active through love”; only
then does he abide in us.
Faith
is knowing the truth and adhering to it; charity is “walking” in
the truth. Through faith we enter into friendship with the Lord,
through charity this friendship is lived and cultivated. Faith causes
us to embrace the commandment of our Lord and Master; charity gives
us the happiness of putting it into practice. In faith we are
begotten as children of God; charity causes us to persevere
concretely in our divine sonship, bearing the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. Faith enables us to recognize the gifts that the good and
generous God has entrusted to us; charity makes them fruitful.
3.
The indissoluble interrelation of faith and charity
In
light of the above, it is clear that we can never separate, let alone
oppose, faith and charity. These two theological virtues are
intimately linked, and it is misleading to posit a contrast or
“dialectic” between them. On the one hand, it would be too
one-sided to place a strong emphasis on the priority and decisiveness
of faith and to undervalue and almost despise concrete works of
charity, reducing them to a vague humanitarianism. On the other hand,
though, it is equally unhelpful to overstate the primacy of charity
and the activity it generates, as if works could take the place of
faith. For a healthy spiritual life, it is necessary to avoid both
fideism and moral activism.
The
Christian life consists in continuously scaling the mountain to meet
God and then coming back down, bearing the love and strength drawn
from him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters with God’s own
love. In sacred Scripture, we see how the zeal of the Apostles to
proclaim the Gospel and awaken people’s faith is closely related to
their charitable concern to be of service to the poor. In the Church,
contemplation and action, symbolized in some way by the Gospel
figures of Mary and Martha, have to coexist and complement each
other. The relationship with God must always be the priority, and any
true sharing of goods, in the spirit of the Gospel, must be rooted in
faith. Sometimes we tend, in fact, to reduce the term “charity”
to solidarity or simply humanitarian aid. It is important, however,
to remember that the greatest work of charity is evangelisation,
which is the “ministry of the word”. There is no action more
beneficial – and therefore more charitable – towards one’s
neighbour than to break the bread of the word of God, to share with
him the Good News of the Gospel, to introduce him to a relationship
with God: evangelisation is the highest and the most integral
promotion of the human person. As the Servant of God Pope Paul VI
wrote in the Encyclical "Populorum Progressio", the
proclamation of Christ is the first and principal contributor to
development. It is the primordial truth of the love of God for us,
lived and proclaimed, that opens our lives to receive this love and
makes possible the integral development of humanity and of every man.
Essentially,
everything proceeds from Love and tends towards Love. God’s
gratuitous love is made known to us through the proclamation of the
Gospel. If we welcome it with faith, we receive the first and
indispensable contact with the Divine, capable of making us “fall
in love with Love”, and then we dwell within this Love, we grow in
it and we joyfully communicate it to others.
Concerning
the relationship between faith and works of charity, there is a
passage in the Letter to the Ephesians which provides perhaps the
best account of the link between the two: “For by grace you have
been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God; not because of works, lest anyone should boast. For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”. It can be
seen here that the entire redemptive initiative comes from God, from
his grace, from his forgiveness received in faith; but this
initiative, far from limiting our freedom and our responsibility, is
actually what makes them authentic and directs them towards works of
charity. These are not primarily the result of human effort, in which
to take pride, but they are born of faith and they flow from the
grace that God gives in abundance. Faith without works is like a tree
without fruit: the two virtues imply one another. Lent invites us,
through the traditional practices of the Christian life, to nourish
our faith by careful and extended listening to the word of God and by
receiving the sacraments, and at the same time to grow in charity and
in love for God and neighbour, not least through the specific
practices of fasting, penance and almsgiving.
4.
Priority of faith, primacy of charity
Like
any gift of God, faith and charity have their origin in the action of
one and the same Holy Spirit, the Spirit within us that cries out
“Abba, Father”, and makes us say: “Jesus is Lord!” and
“Maranatha!”.
Faith,
as gift and response, causes us to know the truth of Christ as Love
incarnate and crucified, as full and perfect obedience to the
Father’s will and infinite divine mercy towards neighbour; faith
implants in hearts and minds the firm conviction that only this Love
is able to conquer evil and death. Faith invites us to look towards
the future with the virtue of hope, in the confident expectation that
the victory of Christ’s love will come to its fullness. For its
part, charity ushers us into the love of God manifested in Christ and
joins us in a personal and existential way to the total and
unconditional self-giving of Jesus to the Father and to his brothers
and sisters. By filling our hearts with his love, the Holy Spirit
makes us sharers in Jesus’ filial devotion to God and fraternal
devotion to every man.
The
relationship between these two virtues resembles that between the two
fundamental sacraments of the Church: Baptism and Eucharist. Baptism
("sacramentum fidei") precedes the Eucharist ("sacramentum
caritatis"), but is ordered to it, the Eucharist being the
fullness of the Christian journey. In a similar way, faith precedes
charity, but faith is genuine only if crowned by charity. Everything
begins from the humble acceptance of faith (“knowing that one is
loved by God”), but has to arrive at the truth of charity (“knowing
how to love God and neighbour”), which remains for ever, as the
fulfilment of all the virtues.
Dear
brothers and sisters, in this season of Lent, as we prepare to
celebrate the event of the Cross and Resurrection?in which the love
of God redeemed the world and shone its light upon history?I express
my wish that all of you may spend this precious time rekindling your
faith in Jesus Christ, so as to enter with him into the dynamic of
love for the Father and for every brother and sister that we
encounter in our lives. For this intention, I raise my prayer to God,
and I invoke the Lord’s blessing upon each individual and upon
every community!
CARDINAL
SARAH: FAITH AND CHARITY ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
Vatican
City, 1 February 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father's Lenten Message for
2013 was presented this morning in the Press Office of the Holy See.
It is entitled: Believing in Charity Calls Forth Charity ? "We
have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us,"
(1Jn 4:16). Participating in the press conference were: Cardinal
Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum";
Msgr. Giampietro Dal Toso and Msgr. Segundo Tejado Munoz,
respectively secretary and undersecretary of that dicastery; and Dr.
Michael Thio, president general of the International
Confederation-Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
"This
year," Cardinal Sarah said, "the theme of the message
focuses on the compelling relationship between faith and charity …
between believing in God, the God revealed by Jesus Christ, and the
charity that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and that leads us to the
horizon of a deeper openness to God and neighbour. … If we talk
about the connection between faith and charity we are referring to,
at least, two dimensions. Firstly, there can be no true faith without
action: whoever believes must learn to give of themselves to others.
Secondly, charity calls forth faith, which therefore makes it
witness."
Introduced
during this Year of Faith, the Lenten Message is "a valuable
opportunity to keep this bond between all the faithful alive. In this
sense, it is a propitious moment, since we are preparing for Easter,
that is, to celebrate the event that Christians recognize as the
source of charity: Christ who dies and is resurrected out of love. …
Lent is always an opportune time for opening … our hearts to our
brothers and sisters who are most in need, sharing what we have with
them. In this particular historical moment, it is necessary to
emphasize the importance of an informed and documented charity that
is attentive to the many areas of poverty, misery, and suffering:
from the increase in number and scale of natural disasters, which are
not without human responsibility, ... to the escalation of violent
conflicts, often forgotten by the media; the worsening of living
conditions for many families, also a consequence of the economic and
financial crisis that affects so many countries in Europe and around
the world; the increase in unemployment, particularly among young
adults; and the situations where jobs exist, but the workers are
exploited, underpaid and without the minimum security that guarantees
the dignity of work itself and consequently, therefore, of the
dignity of the human person."
"The
centre of this Lenten Message," the cardinal reiterated, "is
certainly the indissoluble interrelation of faith and charity. …
'We can never separate, let alone oppose, faith and charity.'
However, this separation or opposition can take different forms. …
It is a misunderstanding to emphasize the faith, and the liturgy as
its privileged channel, so strongly as to forget that they are
intended for actual persons who have their own needs?human as they
may be?their own history, their own relationships. This becomes so
convenient for so many of us?inside and outside of church, which is
fragrant with candles, busy putting the sacristy in order,
concentrating on abstract theological discussions and clerical
disputes?to overlook persons in their totality, the whole person to
whom Christ calls."
"Another
misconception is thinking that the Church is some kind of great act
of philanthropy or solidarity that is purely human, in which social
commitment is a priority, or that what is important is the promotion
of a humanity that has culture and enough to eat." Such a
misunderstanding extends to thinking that "the Church's main
task is to build a just and equitable society, forgetting our need
for God that lies at the heart of our very being."
"A
further misconception is to divide the Church into a 'good
Church'?the one of charitable action?and a 'bad Church'?the one that
insists on the truth, that defends and protects human live and the
universal moral values." Such a misunderstanding proposes that
"the Church is fine when taking care of the sick, but it does
less well when exercising the duty of raising awareness."
"Faith
and charity go together, which is why the Gospel and action go
together. What holds as true in personal experience also applies to
the Church as a community. … On the one hand, a life based solely
on faith runs the risk of sinking into a banal sentimentality that
reduces our relationship with God to mere consolation. On the other
hand, a charity that kneels in adoration of God without taking into
account the source from which it springs and to which every good deed
must be directed, is likely to be reduced to mere philanthropy, to
mere 'moral activism'. In our lives, therefore, we are called to keep
the 'knowing' of truth and the 'walking' in truth united."
"This
is why I believe this Message is so timely," Cardinal Sarah
concluded. "Not only because it falls during the Year of Faith
and therefore in this context we do well to remember that faith and
charity are the two faces of the same coin, that is, our belonging to
Christ. But is timely because in this phase of history, when humanity
struggles to recognize itself and to find a path to the future, the
Pope's words present a unified proposal, a way of life in which
accepting God engenders acceptance of others in all their dimensions,
expressions, and needs. The Church can thus be the beacon of a
renewed humanity and contribute to the coming of the 'Civilization of
Love'."
AUDIENCES
Vatican
City, 1 February 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father received in
separate audiences:
Archbishop
Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., titular of Thibica and secretary
of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and
eight
prelates from the Campania region of the Italian Episcopal Conference
on their "ad limina" visit:
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Archbishop Luigi Moretti of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno,
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Archbishop Orazio Soricelli of Amalfi-Cava de’ Tirreni,
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Archbishop Tommaso Caputo, of the territorial prelature of Pompei o
Beatissima Vergine Maria del Santissimo Rosario and pontifical
delegate to the sanctuary,
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Bishop Antonio Napoletano, C.SS.R., of Sessa Aurunca,
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Bishop Arturo Aiello of Teano-Calvi,
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Bishop Giuseppe Giudice of Nocera Inferiore-Sarno,
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Msgr. Pietro Piccirillo, diocesan administrator of Capua, and
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Fr. Giordano Rota, O.S.B., apostolic administrator of Santissima
Trinita di Cava de’ Tirreni
OTHER
PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican
City, 1 February 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father has granted the
"Ecclesiastica Communio" requested of him in accordance
with canon 76 para. 2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
by His Beatitude Louis Raphael I Sako, canonically elected as
Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans by the Synod of Bishops of that
Church, meeting in Rome on 28 January.
The
Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Church, convoked by the Holy Father
under the presidency of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the
Congregation for the Oriental Churches, canonically elected the
Archbishop Louis Sako as Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans. The
new Patriarch, previously archbishop of Kirkuk of the Chaldeans,
Iraq, has chosen the name of Louis Raphael I Sako. He succeeds His
Eminence Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly.
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