SAGE RAINELLE A.

LINGATONG
2A
Date of Submission: APRIL 21, 2021

The Importance of Love to St. Benedict and to Pope Benedict XVI

Love is defined by the dictionary as an intense feeling of deep affection. 1 It is universal. It can
be understood by any person, of any ethnicity, nationality, or race. It is a set of emotions and
behaviors characterized by intimacy, passion, and commitment. To some people, love is considered
to be one of the most important human emotions.2

For Saint Benedict, the primary importance of love is that it is the greatest instrument and
goal of every good work his monks would seek to accomplish. According to Matthew 22: 37-39, Luke
10:27, and Mark 12:30-31, “First of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul and all
your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. It is the love of Christ that must come before all
else.3
This means that to Saint Benedict, we must trust and love the Lord with all our heart, mind,
body, and soul. God must come first in our lives before anything or anyone else. At the same time,
God also loves us and desires that we have eternal life with him 4 and have an abundant and
meaningful life with him5.

On the other hand, according to the encyclical Deus Caritas of Pope Benedict XVI, Pope
Benedict XVI wrote that “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in
him” [1 John 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”. 6

For Pope Benedict, I believe that his concept of love is God. God’s love for us is essential and
it allows us to get to know who God is and through Him we are able to discover ourselves. We know
this because God let His only Son die on the cross for us so that all of our sins will be forgiven. We
must choose to place our faith in Christ to save us because we are saved by God’s grace through our
faith in Jesus Christ.

1 Love definition, Accessed on April 10, 2021, Love | Definition of Love at Dictionary.com
2 What is Love?, Accessed on April 10, 2021, https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-love-2795343
3 St. Benedict, the Theology of the Body and Human Love, Accessed on April 11, 2021, St Benedict, the Theology
of the Body and Human Love - The Blogging Monk (beliefnet.com)
4 John 3:16
5 John 10:10
6 Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est of the Supreme Pontiff Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops, Priests, and
Deacons, Men and Women Religious and All the Lay of the Faithful on Christian Love. Accessed on April 12,
2021, Deus caritas est (December 25, 2005) | BENEDICT XVI (vatican.va)
 The concepts of love of Saint Benedict and Pope Benedict XVI are identical in the way that
God is the center of their love. The God who created the world and created us in His own image and
likeness, who loves us very much and who wants to be a part of our lives. It is only when we are in a
relationship with God and experience His love that we are able to love others the way God loves us.

Also, when we trust and love God, His love will change us and allow us to grow into the
person He wants us to be. According to the Bible, “Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we
believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for
everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will
live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.” 7 Our relationship with God lets us experience His
forgiveness which allows us to be free from the negative aspects of our personal lives and move on
to the positive things. Being in a relationship with Him, we are gifted with the Holy Spirit which gives
us the strength to persevere every day.

As a law student of San Beda College Alabang, I believe that the most important values the
study of Bedan Spirituality has taught me are prayer, work, and relationships. I learned early on in
my first year of law school the Latin phrase, Ora Et Labora, which translates to Prayer and Work. I
believe that this Latin phrase speaks volumes to the kind of discipline a Bedan law student should
have. There should be a balance of both hard work and prayer as these are the most important
qualities Bedan law students have. With God in the center of our lives, He binds us all as one
community, one family. It has taught me how to live and get along with others regardless of our
differences, for we can all learn from one another. According to Zechariah 7:9-10, “This is what the
Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not
oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”
This pandemic has taught me that we can only rely on each other. We can only continue to live on
these trying times through the support of our family, friends, and fellow Bedans to live.

I have also learned that we must respect one another for in the eyes of God, we are all equal.
The Bible teaches us that: “For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those
who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare
themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond our
measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach
even as far as you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we did not reach to you, for we
were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ; not boasting beyond our measure,
that is, in other men’s labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we shall be, within our
sphere, enlarged even more by you, so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and
not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another.” 8 Through this, we should
always be mindful of what we say to others and how we act with others. We may each come from
different walks of life, but our experiences and ambitions can unite us.

7 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
8 2 Corinthians 10:12-16