"No one can live without love" - Pope Francis

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

June is the month traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. How appropriate Pope Francis’ General Audience last Wednesday:

“No one can live without love. In a certain sense, behind many reactions of hatred and violence a great interior void is hidden, that of a heart that has not been truly loved. The only thing that can make a person happy is the experience of loving and of being loved,” said the Pontiff.

“The first step God took towards us was His anticipated and unconditional love. God loves us before we have done something to deserve it. He is love and, by nature, love tends to diffuse itself, to give itself.”

It is, said the Pope, “like a mother, who never ceases to love her son, even if he committed a fault and has to face justice. So God never stops loving us, because we are His beloved children.”

“Love calls love. To change a person’s heart, we must, in the first place, embrace him; he must feel he is important to us and that he is loved. Thus the gift of hope will also begin to dawn for him.

God so loved the world He gave us Jesus, His Word made flesh to dwell among among us, to real most fully, Who Love is. Jesus continues His supreme act of Love in every Mass, which re-presents to us the One Sacrifice of Calvary offered continually on our altars. Jesus remains in our Tabernacles: the Resurrected Body and Blood Soul and Divinity of Jesus, under the appearances of bread and wine.

When Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary He said: "Behold this Heart which has loved men so much but has received so little in return. Reading this excerpt above from Pope Francis’ Audience (in Zenit) this morning, I wondered how many of us are truly seeking to love, as Jesus loved us. That is His Commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you”. If we are to love anyone, truly, as Jesus loved us, then we need to receive from Jesus first. We cannot give what we neither know or possess ourselves.

Come, Holy Spirit fill the hearts of Your faithful; kindle in us the Fire of Your Love. Enable us to hear Jesus in His Revealed Truth and learn from His Meek and Humble Heart. By Grace, enable us to do the Truth we hear. Love is more than feelings, it is willing to remain in Him Who is Love, even on the Cross. Let us not love in word only but in Spirit and in Truth. We have been loved, let us receive and give love.