To Be Loved and to Love

A Reflection on Love From Pope Benedict XVI:

God brings Abraham out from among his family and sets him on certain path. When it comes down to it, everyone has to undergo his own exodus. He not only has to leave the place that nurtured him and become independent, but has to come out of his own reserved self.

He must leave himself behind, transcend his own limits; only then will he reach the Promised Land, so to speak - the sphere of freedom, in which he plays his part in creation.

We have come to recognize this fundamental law of transcendence as being the essence of...love.

And of course the act of one who loves me is an act of this type. He has to bring me out of the comfortable inclination to stay within myself. Isolation is contrary to man's inmost inclination. If isolation means not being loved, being abandoned, being alone on one's own, this situation is indeed the fear underlying all our fears.

Thus we can see again that man is constructed from within, in the image of God, to be loved and to love.

At this point I believe we have to refer to man's being in the image of God. God is love.

The essence of love portrays its own nature in the Trinity. Man is in God's image, and thereby he is a being whose innermost dynamic is likewise directed toward the receiving and the giving of love.

Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI


Who is God asking me to show love to today?

Peace,