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Deus Caritas Est 1

In his encyclical 'Deus Caritas Est', Pope Benedict XVI emphasizes that God is love and that the Christian faith is rooted in the experience of this divine love. He highlights the importance of loving God and one's neighbor as central tenets of Christianity, which are responses to God's initial love for humanity. The document aims to counteract misconceptions of God associated with vengeance, instead promoting a message of love that should be shared with others.

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Alfonso Alcaraz Moreno
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225 views1 page

Deus Caritas Est 1

In his encyclical 'Deus Caritas Est', Pope Benedict XVI emphasizes that God is love and that the Christian faith is rooted in the experience of this divine love. He highlights the importance of loving God and one's neighbor as central tenets of Christianity, which are responses to God's initial love for humanity. The document aims to counteract misconceptions of God associated with vengeance, instead promoting a message of love that should be shared with others.

Uploaded by

Alfonso Alcaraz Moreno
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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1/5/24, 1:43 PM Deus caritas est (December 25, 2005) | BENEDICT XVI

ENCYCLICAL LETTER
DEUS CARITAS EST
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS
PRIESTS AND DEACONS
MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS
AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON CHRISTIAN LOVE

INTRODUCTION
1. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”
(1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable
clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the
resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also
offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to
believe in the love God has for us”.

We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express
the fundamental decision of his life. 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. Saint John's Gospel describes that event
in these words: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should ... have eternal life” (3:16). In acknowledging the
centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel's faith, while at
the same time giving it new depth and breadth. The pious Jew prayed daily the
words of the Book of Deuteronomy which expressed the heart of his existence:
“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might” (6:4-5).
Jesus united into a single precept this commandment of love for God and the
commandment of love for neighbour found in the Book of Leviticus: “You shall
love your neighbour as yourself” (19:18; cf. Mk 12:29-31). Since God has first
loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the
response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.

In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or


even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant.
For this reason, I wish in my first Encyclical to speak of the love which God
lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others. That, in essence,
is what the two main parts of this Letter are about, and they are profoundly

https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.html 1/31

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