God is Love

“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” These words, taken from the First Letter of John (1 Jn 4:16), are the opening words of Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, God is Love.

God loves man, whom he created in his own image, after his likeness. And God so loved the world that he has given to us his very own Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). Jesus Christ came into the world for one purpose only: to fulfill the will of his Father. Not my will but yours be done, Jesus cried out at Gethsemani. The will of his Father is that all men live in love -- in love of God and in love of one another. Love is the passport to eternal life.

Our purpose in life should also be the same as Christ’s purpose. We have been created in God’s image, and in that image we ought to live. The mark of the follower of Christ is in the way the follower lives the commandment of love in his or her daily life. God has first loved us. If God so loved us, we also must love one another (cf 1 Jn 4:16). God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).

This is the commandment of Jesus: “I give you a new commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:34-35). And Jesus tells us how to show this love for him. "If you love me, keep my commandments" (Jn 14: 15). “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another” (Rom 13:8). Further Jesus says: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him" (Jn 14:21).

Love edifies our life (cf 1 Cor 8:1). Without love, we are nothing (cf 1 Cor 13:2). “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed” (1Cor 16:22). We are also assured that for those who love God, everything will work for good (cf Rom 8:28). We are talking about the goodness in our life while we are still on earth. And the promise of eternal life.

Be not afraid. Be not afraid to know the truth about ourselves, as the late Pope John Paul II wrote in Crossing the Threshold of Hope (p. 5). We are sinful and we need to be saved from this sinfulness.

Pope Benedict XVI echoes these words in his first homily as the Bishop of Rome: “Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life” (25 April 2005). Do not be afraid to open our hearts to Jesus Christ. Do not be afraid to follow him. We recall the message of the angel who spoke to the women in the morning, when they saw the stone covering the tomb where Jesus was buried rolled back. “Do not be afraid! ... He is not here; he is risen (Mt 28:5-6)”. Jesus is risen, and he gives us peace; he himself is peace (Ibid.).

For this reason the Church repeats insistently: “Christ is risen - Christós anésti. Let the people of the third millennium not be afraid to open their hearts to him. His Gospel totally quenches the thirst for peace and happiness that is found in every human heart. Christ is now alive and he walks with us. What an immense mystery of love! Christus resurrexit, quia Deus caritas est! Alleluia! (Pope Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi, Easter 2006).