ABSTRACT
A YOUNG CATHOLIC TODAY inherits a long, long tradition of reflection on love that is unmatched in any other tradition in the world, beginning with the sublime “Song of Songs” of the Jewish Testament and the many sections of the Christian Testament dedicated to “love.” I especially cherish chapter four of the First Epistle of Saint John. Then there is Saint Augustine’s wonderful reflection on the civilization of love in The City of God and also on disordered eros (and concupiscientia) in the Confessions. My personal all-time favorite exposition is the De caritate of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Although not all scholars see this point, caritas is the inner drive of the whole thought of Saint Thomas, naming both the inner life of the Creator and the inner dynamic of the universe, and not least the central longing of the Lord’s most beautiful creation, the human person. As Jacques Maritain once wrote, “By its liberty, the human person transcends the stars and all the world of nature.” 4
