Live our lives with love


 WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER-live our lives with love-02-26-24

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (v. 36). It is not a catchphrase, but a life commitment. (..) If we look at the history of salvation, we see that the whole of God’s revelation is an unceasing and untiring love for mankind: God is like a father or mother who loves with an unfathomable love and pours it out abundantly on every creature. Jesus’ death on the Cross is the culmination of the love story between God and man. 

A love so great that God alone can understand it. It is clear that, compared to this immeasurable love, our love will always be lacking. But when Jesus calls us to be merciful like the Father, he does not mean in quantity!

He asks his disciples to become signs, channels, witnesses of his mercy. The Church can be nothing other than a sacrament of God’s mercy in the world, at every time and for all of mankind. Every Christian, therefore, is called to be a witness of mercy, and this happens along the path of holiness. (…) Merciful love is therefore the only way forward. 

We all have a great need to be a bit more merciful, to not speak ill of others, to not judge, to not “sting” others with criticism, with envy and jealousy. We must forgive, be merciful, and live our lives with love. This love enables Jesus’ disciples to never lose the identity they received from Him, and to recognize themselves as children of the same Father. (General audience, 21 September 2016)


Monday of the Second Week in Lent

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