Pope Benedict XVI
The Son of God became Man to Summon us to a Revolution of Tenderness
Evangelii Gaudium #88, Pope Francis
Monsignor Fernando Ocariz, Chicago, July 21, 2019
In his get-together with men last week the Prelate said, “All things are created for Christ, for Him, and in Him.” Therefore, we should center our entire life on Jesus. “Our prayer, our life, our spiritual life, our life of work, our family life, our apostolic life-everything should center on Jesus Christ,” he said. “Everything is for Him; the whole meaning of life, of creation, of history, is based on this truth.” The prelate said that this foundation on Christ “is where we draw the strength to be his co-operators, to have Him present in us, the identify with Him. All the apostolic work must focus on this. It is about brining others to Jesus Christ.”
Saint John Paul II, The Trinity’s Embrace, God’s Saving Plan, Vol. 6, pp. XIV, XV
History is the gradual unfolding of God’s saving plan which finds its key, center and purpose in Jesus Christ…Christ’s life is the “hour of Love” unfolded in the Father and the Holy Spirit…a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father [which] takes place in the heart of each person, the reaches to the whole of humanity.
Pope Benedict XVI, The Joy of Knowing Christ, Meditations on the Gospels
Chapter 22, A Revolutionary Love, Luke 6:27-38
This Sunday’s gospel contains some of the most typical and forceful words of Jesus’ preaching: “Love your enemies.” (Luke 6:27) It is taken from Luke’s gospel but is also found in Matthews (5:44), in the context of the programmatic discourse that opens with the famous “beatitudes.” Jesus delivered it in Galilee at the beginning of his public life: it is, as it were, a “manifesto” presented to all, in which he asks for his disciples’ adherence, proposing his model of life to them in radical terms.
But what do his words mean? Why does Jesus ask us to love precisely our enemies, that is, a love which exceeds human capacities?
Actually, Christ’s proposal is realistic because it takes into account that in the world there is too much violence, too much injustice, and therefore this situation cannot be overcome except by countering it with more love, with more goodness. This more comes from God: it is his mercy which was made flesh in Jesus and which alone can “tip the balance” of the world from evil to good, starting with that small and decisive “world” which is the human heart.
In responding to evil with good (see Romans 12:17-21) and thereby breaking the chain of injustice, one understands that for Christians nonviolence is not merely tactical behavior, but a person’s way of being, the attitude of one who is so convinced of God’s love and power that he is not afraid to tackle evil with the weapons of love and truth alone. Love of one’s enemies constitutes the nucleus of the “Christian revolution,” a revolution not based on strategies of economic, political, or media power; …a love that does not rely ultimately in human resources but is a gift from God, which is obtained by trusting solely and unreservedly in his merciful goodness. Here is the newness of the gospel which silently changes the world! Here is the heroism of the “lowly” who believe in God’s love and spread it, even at the cost of their lives.
Let us ask the Virgin Mary, docile disciple of the Redeemer who helps us to allow ourselves to be won over without reserve by that love, to learn to love as he loved us, to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful. (Luke 6:36)
Pope Benedict XVI
Died December 31, 2022 (Feast of the Holy Family)
His first Encyclical: God is Love, His last words, “Jesus, I love you.”
His words on the family
The Family is the privileged setting where every person learns to give and receive love
A necessary good for peoples, an indispensable foundation for society
A great and lifelong treasure for couples
A unique good for children who are meant to be the fruit of the love, of the total and generous self-giving of their parents
The family is also a school that enables men and women to grow to the full measure of their humanity