This week at most Masses, we will sing, “Where Charity and Love Prevail”. The tune is CHRISTIAN LOVE by Paul Benoit (1893-1979). The text has been translated from the ancient 9th century text by Omer Westendorf (1916-1997). The first verse reads:
Where charity and love prevail, There God is every found; Brought here together by Christ’s love, By love are we thus bound.
This verse is based on the gospel of John 13:34-35 that reads: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Rerum Novarum, writes, in paragraph 25 But, if Christian precepts prevail, the respective classes will not only be united in the bonds of friendship, but also in those of brotherly love. For they will understand and feel that all men are children of the same common Father, who is God; that all have alike the same last end, which is God Himself, who alone can make either men or angels absolutely and perfectly happy; that each and all are redeemed and made sons of God, by Jesus Christ, "the first-born among many brethren"; that the blessings of nature and the gifts of grace belong to the whole human race in common, and that from none except the unworthy is withheld the inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven. "If sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and co-heirs with Christ."(22) Such is the scheme of duties and of rights which is shown forth to the world by the Gospel. Would it not seem that, were society penetrated with ideas like these, strife must quickly cease?
Pope Leo XIV, now our pope, will focus a lot on this very topic. Let us pray for him, as he shepherds the universal church, and reminds us all of the power of love in ending divisions and strife. Let us be a hopeful people, that love will prevail!