“The Saints: icons of charity”

Prof. Silvio Cajiao, S.I. - Bogotá,

In the concluding sections of his encyclical “God is Love” (Nos. 40-42) (25-XII-05) his Holiness Benedict XVI closes his considerations offering us as examples, references and icons the Holy Mother of God and the saints in whom we find reflected and recapitulated the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Their daily lives emanate the reality of God’s love, or rather God himself who is love, that gives meaning to their lives.

Regarding the common priesthood that all the baptized share, Vatican II tells us in the Constitution Lumne Gentium, Chapter 2, referring to “The People of God”, that “all the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness whereby the Father Himself is perfect” (No.11).

The Roman Pontiff, in his capacity as a theologian, had already analyzed this idea of the vocation to holiness in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in his book “Introduction to Christianity” (1968). In it he reflects upon the bitter criticisms made by some people regarding this affirmation when faced with the sad reality of the Church, which is at once holy and sinful, especially within its internal power struggle (pgs. 300-307). On this subject he commented: “The church lives only in us, it lives in a struggle between sin and holiness, and just as it struggles it also lives by the gift of God, without which it could not exist. But this struggle will be useful and constructive only when it is animated by the spirit that endures all, real love. (...) But we are fooling ourselves if we believe that we can build more and better alone than as a team. Just as we fool ourselves when we consider the Church as “holy people ” instead of the “holy Church”, which is holy because the Lord graciously gives the gift of holiness.”

Looking back on the past we see that this concern to concretely demonstrate the love that comes from the one God who is love has been in Pope Ratzinger’s heart, all the more so before the mystery of a holy and sinful Church. But in the reflection he makes in his encyclical he wants to orient us toward the other concern of a philosophical and sociological nature. The Marxist criticism alleging a structural change, which is certainly valid, is insufficient to validate the Christian practice of love because here we are not speaking of simply a cultural and socio-historical change but rather the validation of our dignity as sons and daughters of God that was conferred on us by Christ Jesus and that must sustain a love that is concrete and at times heroic. This love was witnessed not only by the Church martyrs but also by the confessors and by the one who is the epitome of giving, the Virgin Mary. In her unconditional faithfulness at the foot of the cross she received the task of being mother of the Church and was destined to be that image of a new humanity, which is coming to life in her resurrected son.