Edward and Elizabeth Sri provide an excellent introduction to Pope Benedict’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est. They ponder extensively two of the “loves” that the Pope Emeritus discusses, eros and agape – eros, a passionate, self-seeking love; and agape, one that turns to seek the good of the other. These loves are both exemplified most perfectly in God’s love for His people – from the passionate love that’s expressed in the Song of Songs to the self-emptying love that culminates in His death on the cross. As God exemplifies them, so we are to imitate them – in any friendship, but they are most especially at the heart of the marriage covenant. As the Sris remind us, we too-often think of love solely as the passionate eros; but we must remember that this eros must be – to use Benedict’s words – “disciplined and purified if it is to provide not just fleeting pleasure, but a certain foretaste … of that beatitude for which our whole being yearns.”
