Homily at San Secondo d

An encyclical is a letter addressed to the entire Church for benefit and reflection of all the faithful. In this encyclical, the Pope is trying to recapture the true meaning of the word love from a culture that has hijacked the meaning of the word to mean almost anything.

The Pope begins with the ancient Greek understanding of love and couples that with human experience and Scripture to build a truly Christian understanding of love.

How did the Greeks define or understand love? Well, they used three words to describe the different aspects of love; filia, which is friendship or brotherly love, eros, which is the love between man and woman, and agape, which is benevolent love, or goodwill.

Eros, the Pope explains is a love of necessity, a love beyond reason and the will, the physical and emotional attraction between a man and a woman. The Greek thought it touched on the divine�

The Pope does not condemn this love, but points out that this love, given fallen human nature, is open to abuse. Undisciplined eros turns the body into a prisoner of lust and other human beings become commodities, objects of pleasure � pornography and prostitution are prime examples of this.

There is a certain ecstasy in eros, a search for the infinite, and a desire for happiness, seeking the divine. But if eros remains on the bodily level and is not purified and elevated by the spirit, it turns into a hatred of the body and self.

C. S. Lewis described eros, as �need� love and agape as �gift� love. There is a certain necessity in eros, a force pushing out to possess that which is perceived to satisfy. The Holy Father acknowledges this need love, this desire in humans going all the way back to creation. When God created Adam and Eve God said to Adam �It is not good that you are alone, I will make you a suitable companion�. Woman was created. God showed Adam woman and God said, �A man shall leave his mother and father, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. There is a certain drive toward union built into man and woman with a complementarity written in their bodies and souls.

However the desire of eros, good in itself, must be disciplined and purified otherwise it can easily turn into selfishness and lust, which is often the case. We all know how hard it is to control eros. It is where a lot of people fall into sin and where the Church gives clear teaching of the use of sexuality precisely to keep eros under control and purified, otherwise it becomes a destructive and abusive force for the person and society. We live in a world that doesn�t want to hear about instructions on eros, and is why the Church is so hated on the topic of sexual morality.

It is in this area that most people have problems with the Church. The Church has the truth about eros. She�s had it for 2,000 years for anyone who cares to listen. It�s the way to true freedom, peace and happiness, away from bondage. A culture that gives in to undisciplined eros, like our own, is basically signing a death warrant. The health of marriage and family depends on the proper use of eros.

The truth about eros: it�s good and powerful, full of life, ecstasy, and mystery, but needs to be channeled and purified. Eros needs to make the transition or transformation from self to the other.

Eros begins something like this: I want/need to possess you because you can make me happy. Eros grows and matures into agape when it begins to care for the other person and �be there� for the other person and even wants to make the other person happy. The true test that eros has made the transformation to agape is the willingness and ability to sacrifice for the other person. Sacrifice is the operative word in agape. That�s what Jesus did for us. He died on the cross out of love to save us. God so loved the world�

The Holy Father points out in the encyclical that God�s love for us is both eros and agape. Scripture is full of spousal imagery to describe God�s love for His people. In the New Testament, the Church is described as the bride of Christ. He died for His spouse. His love for her was consummated on the cross. God�s love certainly may be called eros, yet it is totally agape which is gift love/benevolent love.

Eros is usually expressed through the body but is primarily a movement of the soul. This is why throughout Church�s history she has encouraged and promoted consecrated celibacy and virginity.

What this is doing is taking the eros inside a person and directing or focusing it towards God. We see in the lives of the saints a fire; their hearts are on fire for the love of God. This is eros, it drives them to make heroic acts of love and make great sacrifice for the love of God, and they are passionately �in love� with God. God becomes the spouse of their souls. Consider Pope John Paul II, Padre Pio, Sister Faustina, and Mother Theresa, etc, here eros is also transformed into agape. Eros and agape work hand-in-hand. For the Christian eros always turns into agape � need love always becomes gift love, possessive love becomes benevolent love.

Heaven will be the soul seeking God, the soul being perfectly and intentionally united with God, and God giving the soul everything it desires. The soul eternally receiving the gift of God�s love, which will be perfect happiness.

Love is our origin, our purpose of existence, and our end.

I encourage you to take a look at the Holy Father�s encyclical. I think it will be most enlightening and helpful on a topic where there is a lot of confusion today. The Holy Father is helping us discover the true meaning of Christian love. God is love, and Jesus is the perfect expression of that love.

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