It was the wish to bring the word "love" back to "its former glory" that led Benedict XVI to choose love as the subject of his first Encyclical. He explained this today, in his address to the people taking part in the meeting promoted in the Vatican by the Papal Council "Cor Unum". "Nowadays, the word love said Benedict XVI is so wasted, so worn out and so misused that one is almost afraid of letting it rise to one’s lips". Yet, "we cannot simply give it up, but we must take it back, purify it and bring it back to its former glory, so that it can light up our life and lead it on to the straight path. It was this realisation that induced me to choose love as the subject of my first Encyclical". In speaking of the origins and contents of his Encyclical, the Holy Father took passages from Dante’s "Divine Comedy". In the Paradise, the Florentine poet "speaks of a sight that became stronger as he looked at it and changed him inside. It is explained the Pope just this: that may faith become a sight-insight that transforms us". Hence the invitation for faith not to be "a theory that one can make its own or even forgo". It is a very matter-of-fact thing said the Pope -: it is the criterion that decides our lifestyle. At a time when hostility and greediness have become superpowers, at a time when we see religion misused up to the triumph of hatred, neutral rationality alone cannot protect us. We need the living God who loved us to death". (to be continued)
