Even if we can’t count our sins, God is waiting for us to open the doors of our hearts to Him. Even if we don’t feel we deserve it yet, He wishes to embrace us as we are.
Pope Francis stressed this during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, as he drew inspiration from John’s Gospel reading and reflected on various meanings of the word ‘love,’ reported Vatican Radio.
“This word ‘love’ is a word that is used so many times and when we use it we don’t know exactly what it means. What is love? Sometimes we can think of the love in the soap operas, but that doesn’t appear to be love. Or else love can seem like having a crush on a person, but then it fades away. Where does true love come from? Whoever loves has been created by God because God is love. Don’t say: ‘Every love is God,’ No, God is love.”
The Apostle John, the Pope stressed, underscores how God loves us first, without limits, and there are many examples of this in the Gospel, including the parable of the prodigal son and the multiplication of the loaves of bread by Jesus.
Not all love, Francis warned, comes from God, but He is the true love. He also directed those gathered to remember the two most important commandments for a Christian, namely loving God and our neighbor.
“When we have something on our mind and we want to ask God to forgive us, it’s He who is waiting for us – to forgive us,» Francis said.
The Pontiff also asserted that this Jubilee Year of Mercy, to some extent, is also about us realizing that the Lord is waiting for us, each one of us.
«Why?» he asked, «To embrace us. Nothing more. To say to us: son, daughter, I love you. I let my Son be crucified for you: this is the price of my love, this is the gift of my love.”
Francis continued, stressing, “The Lord is waiting for me, the Lord wants me to open the door of my heart” and that we are to realize God waits for us as we are now, not just as we are to be.
“We must go to the Lord and say: ‘You know Lord how much I love you.’ Or, if you don’t feel able to say it in that way: ‘You know Lord that I would like to love you but I am such a bad sinner,’ Francis said.
Pope Francis concluded, stressing that God then will do the same for his people as the father in the prodigal son: «He won’t let you finish your speech and with an embrace will silence you. The embrace of God’s love.”
