Philippine Asian News Today Vol 19 No 11 | Page 25

June 1 - 15, 2017
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
We don’t earn God’s love,
it’s free! - Pope Francis
Vatican City - On Wednesday,
Pope Francis said that God’s love
isn’t something we earn or deserve
by our good works, but that it is
free and unconditional – no matter
what.
“God’s first step towards us is
that of an anticipated and uncon-
ditional love. God loves first,” Pope
Francis said June 14.
“God does not love us because
there is some reason that causes
love. God loves us because He
Himself is love, and love tends to
spread and give by its nature. God
does not even tie his benevolence
to our conversion: if anything this
is a consequence of God’s love.”
“Saint Paul says it perfectly,”
he continued: “‘God demonstrates
his love for us in the fact that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us’ (Rm 5:8).”
“None of us can live without
love,” the Pope said, but to believe
that love is earned is to fall into a
type of slavery. “Perhaps much of
the anguish of contemporary man
comes from this: to believe that
unless we are strong, attractive and
beautiful, then no one will take care
of us.”
“Behind such seemingly in-
explicable behavior arises a ques-
tion,” he continued: “is it possible
that I do not deserve to be called by
name? That is, to be loved?”
Pope Francis reflected on this
question during the general audi-
ence Wednesday, considering what
it is like when we do not recognize
that we are loved and cherished by
God or the people around us, es-
pecially as children.
“Many people today,” he said,
“look for visibility only to fill an inner
void: as if we were people eternally
in need of confirmation. But, imag-
ine it, a world where everyone begs
for reasons to attract the attention
of others, and no one is willing to
love one another for free?”
“Imagine a world like this: a
world without the freedom to love!
It looks like a humane world, but in
reality it is a living hell.”
How much selfish and narcis-
sistic behavior comes about be-
cause of this loneliness, he asked.
When a child is not loved or does
not feel loved, he said, this is when
in adolescence they can start to act
out, or even become violent. Be-
hind this behavior “is often a heart
that has not been recognized.”
What can we do to help people
know they are loved by God? Fran-
cis said that when love is given and
received freely between people,
even in just a simple look or smile,
this is what transforms sadness and
loneliness into happiness and joy.
An exchange of glance, of
smiles, has the power to open
those closed in sadness, he said.
By looking someone in the eyes,
we can open the doors of some-
one’s heart.
“What can make us happy if
not the experience of love given
and received?” he said,
Continued on PAGE 27
Sharing your gifts
inspires unity – Tagle
The Archbishop of Manila,
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, re-
minded the faithful how actively
sharing one’s gifts for the good of
the community will inspire “com-
munity and unity.”
“Communion and unity will
not be whole if we become self-
ish and not share our gifts for the
goodness of all. As one communi-
ty – one in faith, we bring our gifts
as God sends us to our neighbor-
hood, family, and BECs,” said the
prelate.
“In this y