Pope urges Christians to live with Christ's logic of charity

Jul 11, 2010 / 08:06 am

In his first Angelus prayer from the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father recalled the parable of the Good Samaritan. He said that the story from Luke's Gospel should lead us to change our thinking and living to Christ's logic, that of charity.

Beginning his pre-Angelus words to the faithful, the Pope first thanked God for giving him the possibility to enjoy a time of rest.

He then reflected on the question posed to Jesus by the scholar of the law who asked in today's Gospel reading what he should do to inherit eternal life. The Holy Father pointed out that, since the Lord knew the man was an expert in Sacred Scriptures, He invited the doctor to respond to the question himself.

The expert, "in fact, formulates (the answer) perfectly," said the Pope, "citing the two principal commandments: to love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself."

And when Jesus responds to the scholar's question, "And who is my neighbor?," the Pope said, he does so "with the famous parable of the 'good Samaritan,' to indicate that it is up to us to be a 'neighbor' to whoever is in need of help."

This parable "should lead us to transform our mentality according to the logic of Christ, which is the logic of charity: God is love and worshiping him means serving our brothers with sincere and generous love," he explained.

The logic of Christ offers us a standard that flows from "the universality of love” which “turns attention to the needy person encountered 'by chance,' whoever they may be," the Pope said, citing his 2005 encyclical Deus Caritas Est.” "Along with this universal rule, there is also a specifically ecclesial responsibility: that 'in the Church herself, as a family, no member should suffer through being in need'.”

"The Christian plan," he concluded, "learned from the teaching of Jesus, is "a heart that sees" where there is need of love and acts consequently."

Before praying the Angelus, the Holy Father remembered the Feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, who was made a patron of Europe in 1964 by Pope Paul VI. Immediately after pronouncing the name of the saint, the packed square erupted in applause with a shout of "Congratulations!" for the Pope's "name day."