Pope at audience: God's unconditional love gives hope
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday continued his
reflections on Christian hope, as he greeted thousands of pilgrims and visitors
gathered in St Peter’s Square and in the Paul VI audience hall for his weekly
general audience.
Pope Francis began his reflection by noting that none of us
can live without love. Yet many people today, he went on, are anguished or
empty inside because they don’t believe they are beautiful or important enough
to be loved by others.
Imagine a world where everyone is seeking attention and
no-one is prepared to give love in a gratuitous way, he said. Behind so much
narcissistic behaviour and incomprehensible actions we discover feelings of
solitude and abandonment.
When adolescents feel unloved, the pope continued, they may
turn to violence, hatred or delinquent behaviour. There is no such thing as bad
children or evil adolescents, he said, but there are unhappy people. When we
look and smile freely at someone who is sad, he said, we open their hearts and
offer them a way out of their unhappiness.
Pope Francis said that God loves us with an unconditional
love, not because we deserve it, but rather because he himself is love. Like
the father of the prodigal son, he said, God has compassion for us even when we
are far away from him. He also recalled the many mothers he met, back in Buenos
Aires, who continued to love their sons unconditionally, even when they did
wrong and ended up in prison.
It is a time of Resurrection for us all, the pope concluded,
because Jesus died to forgive us our sins. It is time to lift up those who are
discouraged and to live in the hope of God the Father who loves us for ever,
just as we are..May all of us find in God’s embrace the promise of new life and
freedom, he said, for in his love is the source of all our hope.
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