In his homily at Santa Marta, Pope Francis described what God's love is like. He said it's like a mother's love, a personal love, not an abstract love.
POPE FRANCIS
'If we cannot feel or understand the tender love of God in Jesus for each of us, then we will never, never, be able to understand the love of Christ. It is a type of love that waits patiently, like the love with which He plays His last card with Judas: ‘Friend,’ offering him a way out, even until the end.'
Finally, the pope explained that Christ loves even great sinners with the same tenderness, because He pities each of His children.
EXTRACTS OF THE POPE'S HOMILY
“He felt this in love. I ask myself: do I love the Lord like him? When hard times come, how often do we feel the desire to say: ‘The Lord has abandoned me. He doesn’t love me anymore’ and then seek to abandon the Lord in turn. But Paul was sure that the Lord would never abandon him. He had understood the love of Christ in his own life. This is the path that Paul shows us: the path of love at all times, through thick and thin, at every moment. This is the greatness of Paul.”
“It is really He Who was sent by the Father to save us. He did so with love. He gave His life for me: There is no greater love than to give your life for another person. We can think about a mother – the love of a mother, for example – who gives her life for her child, accompanying him or her through life in difficult moments… Jesus’ love is near to us, and is not an abstract love. It is a You-Me/Me-You love – each of us – with our own name and surname.”
“The love of Christ drives Him to weep, to weep for each of us. What tenderness we find in this expression. Jesus could have condemned Jerusalem, say horrible things… But he laments that she would not allow herself to be loved like the hen’s chicks.
This is the tender love of God in Jesus. Which is exactly what Paul understood. If we cannot feel or understand the tender love of God in Jesus for each of us, then we will never, never, be able to understand the love of Christ. It is a type of love that waits patiently, like the love with which He plays His last card with Judas: ‘Friend’, offering him a way out, even until the end.
He loves even the worst sinners with this tenderness, all the way up to the end. I’m not sure we think about Jesus being so tender – Jesus who cries, as He cried before the tomb of Lazarus, as He cried here looking out over Jerusalem.”
