“First of all, I want to tell everyone the first truth: “God loves you”. If you have already heard it, it doesn’t matter, I want to remind you: God loves you. Never doubt it, no matter what happens to you in life. In whatever circumstances you are infinitely loved.” (Pope Francis).
LOVE IS CONCRETE
If there is one expression that sums up the relationship of faith, its heart, it is “God loves me”. Not only “God is love”, as we have so often heard in the Word of God (1 Jn 4:8), but “God loves me”.
“God is love” is a definition; “God loves me” indicates a personal and indispensable relationship. The difference is great because it assumes that one is involved in such love. Let’s think about our relationships as spouses and let’s think about our families.
There are many forms of love. In all of them we can see traces of God’s love and they can be used as comparisons, always disproportionate, to describe the experience of his love.
The love of parents for their children, the love of blood brothers and sisters, the love of a couple faithfully committed to a common project, the love of an unbreakable friendship. All of them are daily forms of love that help us to understand and express how much and how God loves us.
HOW IS THE LOVE OF GOD!
We know that love is a worn-out word because it is so often used to express passing feelings that have little to do with it. Love is not feeling, although it must involve feeling. True love, that which God experiences and intertwines with one’s own life, has certain characteristics that Francis reminds us of:
It is a love “that does not crush, it is a love that does not marginalize, that does not keep silent, a love that does not humiliate or overwhelm. It is the love of the Lord, a love of every day, discreet and respectful, a love of freedom and for freedom, a love that heals and lifts up. It is the love of the Lord that knows more about rising than about falling, about reconciliation than about prohibition, about giving a new opportunity than about condemnation, about the future than about the past”.
LOVE HEALS EVERYTHING
True love, the love of God, is given in all situations of life. Life itself is an expression of his love. In the simple events that gently caress us we see it with a certain clarity. On the other hand, it is more difficult to recognize it in complicated situations because they focus our attention.
It is not that God’s love sends us these complications, but that in the complications of life, God’s love sneaks in, showing its faithfulness and healing capacity. The difficulties may not change or evaporate, but the love of God received in those moments is capable of restoring our endurance and our hope.
LOVE IS FREE AND RESPECTFUL
Authentic love, God’s love, is gratuitous and unconditional. It is not motivated by anything that has been given before, nor is it a mortgage that charges you interest on account. It only expects to be reciprocated with our simple welcome. It is a free and respectful love, which generates free relationships, neither exclusive nor excluding.
Since it is free, we think that it is always at our hand, because even if we do not accept it, God will always offer it to us. What a great sorrow when we become ungrateful children of God!
IS A LOVE THAT DIALOGUES
God’s love is an invitation to dialogue, to relationship. It is the “hello”, “good morning” that awaits a response; the “how are you?” that expresses his concern for our life. So few words, but sincere and authentic!
IN THE LIGHT OF THE WORD OF GOD
“With human cords he drew them, with bonds of love, and he was to them as those who lift up a child against their cheek” (Hos 11:4).
“Does a woman forget her sucking child, without shuddering with the son of her womb? Well, even if she should forget, I will not forget you”. (Is 49:15).
“Behold, I bear you tattooed on the palms of my hands” (Is 49:16). “The mountains shall tumble and the hills shall be moved, but my love shall not depart from your side, my covenant of peace shall not waver” (Is 54:10).
“I loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have kept faithfulness for you.” (Jer 31:3).
“God is your everything: if you are hungry, he will be your bread; and if you are thirsty, your water; and if you are in darkness, your light; and if you are naked, he will be your garment of immortality” (St. Augustine).