“Especially through His lifestyle and through His actions, Jesus revealed that love is present in the world in which we live – an active love, a love that addresses itself to man and embraces everything that makes up his humanity. This love makes itself particularly noticed in contact with suffering, injustice and poverty – in contact with the whole historical ‘human condition,’ which in various ways manifests man’s limitation and frailty, both physical and moral” (Dives in Misericordia, n. 3).
The deepest desire of each one of us is to love and be loved. Various are the life experiences, shortcomings and wounds that we carry from our relationships with those closest to us. Sometimes we feel unloved, rejected, disregarded. Often we also see that we ourselves are unable to love as we would like.
The source of love is not in us, but in God! In becoming man, Jesus showed us that there is love in the world – a merciful love that “never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Cor 13: 7).
Are there people in your life that you are not able to love?
What events, behaviors, and weaknesses (yours and others) make it difficult for you to love?
In a short prayer, entrust all of this to Jesus, asking him to fill your heart with love.
“I desire to be transformed completely into Your mercy and be a living reflection of You, O Lord; may God’s greatest attribute, His unfathomed mercy, pass through my heart and soul onto my neighbours” (Diary 163).
“O my Jesus, You know how much effort has to be put in to manage to be sincere and straightforward with those whom our nature shuns, or with those who have either deliberately or inadvertently made us suffer – it’s simply impossible in the ordinary, human way. At such times I try to do more than I would otherwise to discover Jesus in that person, and it’s for the sake of Jesus that I do everything for such people. There is pure love in such deeds; this sort of exercise in love strengthens the soul and makes it more resilient” (Diary 766).
