Human Dignity, Sexuality, and Marriage & Family (The Catholic Faith Series) by United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops (usccb)

Author:United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops (usccb) [Bishops, United States Conference Of Catholic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
Published: 2013-01-18T05:00:00+00:00

Human beings can realize agape in that they

Are created in the image of God-Love and are loved by God, and therefore love in the completeness of their potentialities

Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit with Baptism and Confirmation

Agape involves a journey of growth that “is never ‘finished’ and complete; throughout life, it changes and matures, and thus remains faithful to itself’ (Deus Caritas Est, no. 17). Love, in fact, is not found already fully formed, but grows; in a manner of speaking we can learn it slowly in such a manner that it may always embrace all our powers and open for us the way to an upright life.

To Dostoyevsky’s question, “What is the beauty that will save the world?”, the answer is: the overwhelming beauty of the Love of God.

Here is a summary of some of the characteristics of Christian agape:

For Christians the source and example of love of God and neighbor is the love of Christ for his Father, for humanity and for each person.

“God is love” (1 Jn 4:16) and “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

God’s love is placed in the human heart through the Holy Spirit.

It is God who first loves us, thereby enabling us to love him in return.

Love does not harm one’s neighbor but rather seeks to do to the other what one would want done to oneself (see 1 Cor 13:4-7).

Love is the foundation and sum of all the commandments (see Gal 5:14).

Love of neighbor cannot be separated from love of God, because it is an expression of our love for God. This is the new commandment, “love one another as I love you” (Jn 15:12).

Grounded in Christ’s sacrificial love, Christian love is forgiving and excludes no one; it therefore also includes one’s enemies. It should be not just words but deeds (see 1 Jn 4:18). This is the sign of its genuineness. (Final declaration of the first seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum, November 6, 2008)

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