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Pope Benedict on Love
This comes to be replaced by the word ahabà, which the Greek version of the Old Testament translates with the similar-sounding agape, which, as we have seen, becomes the typical expression for the biblical notion of love. By contrast with an indeterminate, “searching” love, this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice. ~Deus Caritas Est
No greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for his friends. The love of which Pope Benedict speaks in his first encyclical is what we Orthodox (and not only the Orthodox) refer to as kenotic love, a love in which the lover empties himself out and succumbs to every humiliation for the sake of the beloved. This is the love that the Lord had for all men, such that He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave, and it is because the Master has become a slave for our sakes that we may dwell with the Master in His court. Such love as this is found in the abandonment of our own will, the learning of humility and obedience and patience, and the doing of His will that we might fulfill the greatest commandments of love. Perfect love is realised in true unity of will, as we put aside self-will and embrace the transformed will of our restored nature, and it is realised in the synergeia of God and man and men with one another and the communion of all in Christ by the blessings of the Holy Spirit. But such love is also the font of these virtues, and without it there is no real living virtue in us.
Via Charles Featherstone, LewRockwell.com Blog.
Daniel Larison | January 25, 2006
Comments
As you are no doubt aware, the Pope has a tremendous respect for and appreciation of Greek theology. Kenosis is just exactly the right way to refer to what Benedict XVI is writing about, and the unity of man with Christ which finds, among other necessary expressions, a unity with not only Christ our Lord's Body and Blood, but also with His mystical Body, the other partakers of the Divine Nature.
As you indicate, the Lord's transformation of the washing of the Passover into the washing of His Disciples' feet is part and parcel with the "leitourgeia" to which He calls us: the Service (the name we colloquially use to refer to attendance at Church) and the Service to the least of His brethren are distinct but may not be separated.
"Perfect love is realised in true unity of will..." How profound! The perfect unity of will of Father, Son and Spirit are perfect love which call those who left the tree of life in Eden to the tree of life on Calvary. We must echo our Lord's acceptance, as He allowed His Mother to do: "Not my will, but thine be done." "Be it done unto me according to thy word."
Marvelous, Daniel.
Mike Burgess | 01/27/06 00:52
I was aware of Pope Benedict's familiarity with Greek theology, and for whatever reason his encyclical seemed very agreeable to me in its style and language. Though I am aware that these things go through immense drafting and re-drafting, the character of a scholar comes through in this encyclical in a way that was not the case with John Paul II. This is not to say anything against John Paul II's learning, which was considerable (and which in his knowledge of languages puts us all to shame), but that he expressed himself in a very different way from Pope Benedict and I happen to prefer or respond better to Pope Benedict's style.
As for my remarks, I must invoke St. John of Damascus here: "I say nothing of my own." Anything profound or marvelous in my comments is thanks to the teaching of St. Maximos the Confessor (whose feast will soon be celebrated on the Old Calendar in early February), among others, and his (in my view) unsurpassed understanding of natural obedience and natural will.
Daniel Larison | 01/27/06 15:18
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