Love in Action (Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, S.J. for ICCRS International Congress 2009)

Albert Vanhoye was born July 23, 1923 at Hazebrouck, France. Answered his call towards the Society of Jesus on the 1941, he was then ordained to become a Priest of Society of Jesus (Jesuit) on the 25 July 1954.  As additional information to you that Jesuits currently are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church with 18,815 members.

As being known for the fields of education, intellectual research, and cultural pursuits, so does Vanhoye. He was obtaining a licentiate and doctorate in sacred scripture with thesis on the Letter to the Hebrews from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In the same institute, from 1963 to 1990 he was made a professor of Scriptures which at the same time also a Rector (from 1984-1990). Vanhoye is being acknowledged as possibly the best expert on the Letter to the Hebrews in the world. Pope Benedict XVI, during that time known as Cardinal Ratzinger came to know him personally and appreciate his competence in Biblical matters. On the 24 March 2006, Albert Vanhoye together with another 15 cardinals being appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Cardinal-Deacon of S.Maria della Mercede e Sant'Adriano a Villa Albani (St.Mary of Mercy & St.Adrian at Villa Albani), giving him the title of Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, S.J.

He was present during ICCRS International Congress 2009 which was being held at Kkottongnae (South Korea) to give his beautiful conference titled 'Love in Action'. Before I share my privilege to be able to read it, just like myself in which before I wrote this sharing not really familiar with ICCRS, I would like to share with some of you who might face the same situation with me a few information about ICCRS. ICCRS which is stands for International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services is the organization that keeps in touch with Catholic Charismatic Renewal Leaders worldwide. ICCRS being introduced on the 1973 and received the recognition from the Vatican by the Pontifical Council for the laity on 14 September 1993, since then ICCRS meets regularly with the Holy See (the Episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, forming the central government of the Catholic church) to obtain indications and consultations while keeping them updated on the growth within the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Based on this stated fact, we could see that ICCRS, therefore, an organization which is do not work independently, and have strong union with the highest order of Catholic Church. Detailed information of ICCRS and the events could be found in http://iccrs.org.

Love in Action

Indeed a manifestation from Vanhoye who feel impressed with the spirituality and religious congregation in Kkottongnae, which according to him filled with the original gift/charism that leads people to live out of a true love. Yes, as umpteen time we heard of the word ‘love’ or might be ‘true love’, before you read this might be in your thinking might say that you have already know or read so many articles and hear so many preaches about it. But, do we really understand about ‘love’ itself? Many times also we hear from the gospel of Matthew “Verily I say unto you, every time you have done these things to just one of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it to me”, but do we really put this into act or since that we hear it too many times, until to certain point that we just listen to it just like listen to the wind blows (the problem with myself is when I hear the same thing again and again, I tend to get bored and ignored them). When I read this article, regardless the length of it, I come to one sense that how love is really become the basic of every talents, gifts, and action that we have.

When we attend any Charismatic renewal and when the discussion revolve around the gifts of Holy Spirit, most likely we will think of the two (most desired) gifts, which are speaking in tongues
(glossolalia) and gift of prophecy. Vanhoye in this article keep reminding us by quoting many from Letter to the Corinthians that it is love that positions all gifts in the right direction, without love they are worthless. All the gifts only can come into place and play their roles when the one who bestowed upon choose love as his virtue in every act. I would like to quote one of my favorite line : “knowledge puffs up”, it swells one up with pride, “while love is what builds up” (I Corinthians 8:11).

The next wonderful teaching that we can find is regarding faith and action. How many times we ever heard about the passage “By grace you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not anything you have done, so that nobody can claim over the credit” (Eph 2:8-9). Does this passage imply that we actually no need to do anything, except have faith in Him and everything will be good? Vanhoye strongly emphasis that this impression is an interpretational error. We could found his intelligent argument on this matter, where he actually said that this passage is an alarm for us so that we do not fall into the sin of pride. Faith and love to exist absolutely need action and works. But works (and money) will become something evil when it replaced the basis of one spiritual life, since the only valid basis is Christ.

I strongly encourage for you to read this article, as to me this article speak about the basic of being a Christian and answer certain debatable topics throughout the seasons.