杏MAP导航

By Linda Bordoni

Marking the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, 杏MAP导航 Francis remarked on how it could be said that the festivity celebrates God's love.

God is the first to love

鈥淚t is not us who first loved God,鈥� it's the other way around: 鈥渋t is He who loved us first鈥� he said.

The 杏MAP导航 said the prophets used the symbol of the almond blossom to explain this reality highlighting the fact that the almond blossom is the first to bloom in spring.

鈥淕od is like that: he is always first. He's the first to wait for us, the first to love us, the first to help us鈥� he said.

God's love is limitless

However, Francis continued, it is not easy to understand God's love as is narrated in the passage from today liturgical reading in which the Apostle Paul speaks  of鈥� preaching to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ.鈥�

鈥�It is a love that cannot be understood. A love that surpasses all knowledge. It surpasses everything. The love of God is so great; a poet described it as a 鈥渂ottomless sea without shores鈥︹�� This is the love that we must try to understand, the love that we receive鈥� he said.

God is a great teacher

The 杏MAP导航 said that throughout the history of salvation the Lord has revealed his love to us: 鈥淗e has been a great teacher.鈥�

Recalling the words of the prophet Hosea, he explained that God did not reveal his love through power but 鈥渂y loving His people, teaching them to walk, taking them in His arms, caring for them鈥�.

鈥�How does God manifest his love? With great works? No: He makes himself smaller and smaller with gestures of tenderness and goodness. He approaches His children and with his closeness He makes us understand the greatness of love鈥� he said.

Greatness expressed in littleness

Finally, 杏MAP导航 Francis said, God sent us His Son. 鈥淗e sent Him in the flesh鈥� and the Son 鈥渉umbled himself until death鈥�.

This, he said, is the mystery of God's love: the greatest greatness expressed in the smallest smallness. This, he said, allows us to understand Christianity.

Reflecting on what Jesus teaches us about what kind of attitude a Christian should have, he said it is all about 鈥渃arrying on God鈥檚 own work in your own small way鈥�:  that is feeding the hungry, quenching the thirsty, visiting the sick and the prisoner.

Works of mercy, he said, pave the path of love that Jesus teaches us in continuity with God鈥檚 great love for us!

Not words about love, but concrete gestures

杏MAP导航 Francis concluded saying we do not need great discourse on love, but men and women 鈥渨ho know how to do these little things for Jesus, for the Father.鈥�

鈥淥ur works of mercy, he said, are the continuity of this love.鈥�