VATICAN CITY, OCT 13, 1999 (VIS) - "The theological virtue of charity: love for God" was the title of John Paul II's catechesis during the general audience held this morning in St. Peter's Square.
The Pope recalled that, in the Old Testament, at the foundation of this directive to wholly love God, there lies God's own love for man. Consequently, "He expects a response of love from the people He most loves."
"This precept, established in Deuteronomy, returns unaltered in the teaching of Jesus, who defines it 'the great and first commandment,' to which he closely links love of neighbor. ... To love God with all one's heart, with all one's soul and all one's strength means to love the God who revealed Himself in Christ and to love Him through participation in Christ's own love."
The Holy Father affirmed that "Charity constitutes the essence of the new 'commandment' taught by Jesus. It is, in fact, the soul of all commandments. ... Consequently, love for God, made possible by the gift of the Spirit, is based on the mediation of Jesus." He added that "the capacity to love as God loves, is offered to each Christian as the fruit of the Paschal mystery of death and resurrection."
"Charity," the Pope explained, "is a theological virtue, that is, a virtue that is referred directly to God and brings human beings into the circuit of trinitarian love."
John Paul II concluded his catechesis by indicating that "in the strength of the Holy Spirit, charity animates the moral behavior of the Christian, orienting and strengthening the other virtues which build within us the structures of the new man."
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