Foreword
by Father Bernard Häring,
CssR
Academia Alphonsiana, Rome
Many excellent books remain relevant only for the generation for which they were
written. But, 'The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ', which is
perhaps the most beautiful book ever written by Saint Alphonsus, belongs
in the ranks of the few books that preserve their freshness throughout
centuries of extrinsic change. This
book shows its unchanging newness, its depth and beauty, in a singular way in
the light of the Second Vatican Council.
This work is an outline of Moral Theology as it should be
presented to the Laity as well as to Priests and Religious;
a Moral Theology that focuses everything in
Christ and in His love for us. It
thus clearly manifests the guiding Spirit of
the Second Vatican Council. Pope Paul VI reminded the
second session of the Council that
every text and every effort must express this highest goal and honor: "Thee,
Christ, alone do we know".
This book also points out very clearly on every page and in every aspect what
Pope John XXIII verified in his whole life and what he inspired the
Council: the primacy of love.
Love is not merely an item in a list
of commandments. The whole life of a Christian revolves around the
reality of being loved by
Christ, and of
loving one another in Christ and
with Christ.
Modern legalists have often considered the words of Saint Augustine, "Love
God and do what you will", very dangerous, if not
erroneous. But Saint Alphonsus
never feared that a true
love of God
would transgress the
laws of God. Quoting this fundamental text of Saint Augustine,
he explains, "A soul that loves God is taught by that
very love never to do anything that might displease Him".
When Saint Alphonsus began to write his original 'Moral Theology'
as a commentary on a text by the Jesuit Busenbaum, he followed an outline
that was acceptable to his own contemporaries. In the final years of his life,
however, he said that he wanted to write a Moral Theology with quite a
different approach. 'The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ' reveals
what his approach would have been. Here, Saint Alphonsus returns to the
foundations of Sacred Scripture and
Tradition, even for the
structure of his presentation. In this
volume he anticipated the renewal of Moral Theology that was to take
place in the era of Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council.
This is the way to teach Christian morality, if we really believe with
the Council that all Christians are called to
holiness, a holiness
that will lead to an ever better fulfillment of the commandment: "This
is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you" -
John 15:12; or, "Be you therefore perfect, as
also your heavenly Father is perfect" - Matthew 5:48. With
this love one finds in every commandment
an invitation to God's love and tries
prudently to find an adequate response of love
in Justice,
Temperance, Fortitude, and all
the other Virtues.
One who reads and meditates on this song of love
can no longer share the attitude of many contemporary Christians that has
been voiced by Paul Claudel: "Surely, we love
Christ, but nothing in this world can make us love morality". One who
accepts everything superficially, on the basis of legalistic casuistry,
and knows only the "ought" and the "thou
shalt not", will never love
the moral law. But one who
realizes that Christian morality always
means being loved by
Christ and living Christ's own
life and love, will find
joy in the Law of
the Lord, and will "meditate on it day and
night". This is the purpose of the words of Saint Alphonsus
that so clearly show the essential continuity of the
doctrine of the Church on the good tidings of Christian
life.
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