Pope Francis - On Love

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eBook ISBN: 978-0-8294-4868-9

Based on the print edition: 978-0-8294-4867-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019951770

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At times, the dark of night seems to penetrate the soul. At times, we think, There is nothing more to be done, and the heart no longer finds the strength to love.... But it is precisely in this darkness that Christ lights the fire of Gods love: a flash breaks through and announces a new startsomething begins in the deepest darkness. We know that the night is most night-like just before the dawn. In that very darkness, Christ conquers and rekindles the fire of love.

There will never be a day in our lives in which we cease to be a concern for the heart of God. God is always concerned about us, and he walks with us. Why does he do this? Because he loves us. Is this understood? He loves us! And God will surely provide for all our needs. He will not abandon us in times of trial and darkness. This certainty seeks to settle in our souls and never be extinguished.

The mystery of Gods love is not revealed to the wise and the intelligent but to the little ones (Luke 10:21; Matthew 11:2526). Therefore, the most profound lesson we are called to transmitand the most certain way to get out of doubtis to embrace the love of God, which we have always had (1 John 4:10). A great love, free and given to us forever. God never goes back on his love! He always moves forward and waits.

Let us remember this in our lives as Christians: Even when we have left him behind, God waits for us. He is never far from us, and, if we return to him, he is ready to embrace us.

The love of God is stable and secure, like the rocky shores that provide shelter from the violence of the waves. Jesus manifests this [love] in the miracle recounted in the Gospel, when he calms the storm, commanding the wind and the sea (Mark 4:41). The disciples are afraid because they realize that they may not survive the storm, but Jesus opens their hearts to the courage of faith. To the man who cries out, I cant do it anymore, the Lord... offers the rock of his love, to which everyone can cling, assured of not falling. How many times do we feel that we cant do it anymore? But He is near us, with his outstretched hand and open heart.

The Lord proclaims himself to be abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. How beautiful this definition of God is! It is all-encompassing. God is great and powerful, and this greatness and power are used to love us, who are so small, so incompetent. The word love connotes affection, grace, goodness. Gods love is not soap-opera love. It is love that takes the first step, love that does not depend on human merit but on immense generosity. Nothing can stop this generosity, not even sin, because Gods love transcends sin, overcomes evil, and forgives it.

God is not some vague entity like a mist.... He is tangible and has a name: God is love. His is not a sentimental, emotional kind of love but the love of the Father who is the origin of all life, the love of the Son who dies on the Cross and is raised, and the love of the Spirit who renews human beings and the world. Thinking that God is love does us so much good because it teaches us to love, it teaches us to give ourselves to others as Jesus gave himself to us and walks with us. Jesus walks beside us on the road through life.

We are all called to witness and proclaim the message that God is love. God isnt far from or insensitive to our human affairs. He is close to us, always beside us, walking with us to share our joys and our sorrows, our hopes and our struggles. He loves us very much, and for that reason, he became human. He came into the world not to condemn it but so the world would be saved through Jesus (John 3:1617). And this is the love of God in Jesus, this love that is so difficult to understand but that we feel when we draw close to Jesus. Jesus always forgives us, always awaits us; he loves us so much. We can feel the love of Jesus and the love of God.

The love of God re-creates everythingthat is, God makes all things new. When we recognize our limits and our weaknesses, we open the door to the forgiveness of Jesus, to a love that can deeply renew us, that can re-create us. Salvation can enter our hearts when we allow ourselves to experience the truth and recognize our mistakes and our sins. Now let us create that beautiful experience of [the one] who has come not for the healthy but for the sick, not for the just ones but for the sinners (Matthew 9:1213). Let us experience his patience, his tenderness, and his will to save all.

Isaiahs prophecy announces the rising of a great light that breaks through the night. This light is born in Bethlehem and is welcomed by the loving arms of Mary, by the love of Joseph, and by the wonder of the shepherds. When the angels announced the birth of the Redeemer to the shepherds, they did so with these words: This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12).

The sign is in fact the humility of God... taken to the extreme. It is the love with which, that night, God assumed our frailty, our suffering, our anxieties, our desires, and our limitations. The message that everyone was expecting, that everyone was searching for in the depths of their souls, was none other than the tenderness of GodGod who looks upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty, who is in love with our smallness.

By decree of the Emperor, Mary and Joseph found themselves forced to leave their people, their home, and their land, and undertake a journey to be registered in the census. This was no comfortable or easy journey for a young couple who were about to have a child. At heart, they were full of hope and expectation because of the child about to be born. Yet their steps were weighed down by the uncertainties and dangers that follow those who must leave home behind.

And there [in Bethlehem], where everything was a challenge, Mary gave us Emmanuel. The Son of God had to be born in a stable because his own people had no room for him. He came to what was his own and his own people did not accept him (John 1:11). Amid the gloom of a city that had no room for the stranger from afar, amid the darkness of this bustling city, the revolutionary spark of Gods love was kindled. In Bethlehem, a door opens for those who have lost their land, their country, their dreams, for those who are overcome with suffering from a life of isolation.

Christmas, above all, has a taste of hope because, for all the darkness in our lives, Gods light shines forth. His gentle light does not frighten us. By being born poor and frail in our midst, God becomes one of us and draws us to himself with tenderness. He is born in Bethlehem, which means house of bread. In this way, God seems to tell us that he is born as bread for us. He enters our life to give us his life; he comes into our world to give us his love.