The Difficult Science of Love

The science of the caress presents two pillars of love: closeness and tenderness. And “Jesus knows this beautiful science well.” This is what Pope Francis said this morning, Friday 7 June, as he celebrated the Mass of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Referring to the readings of the day, taken from the book of the prophet Ezekiel (34:11–16), from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (5:5–11), and from the Gospel of Luke (15:3–7), the Pope described the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the “feast of love.”

These are the two criteria of which “Paul, in the second reading, tells us: While we were still weak, Jesus, at the appointed time, died for the ungodly. Jesus loved us not through words but through works, through his life. And he gave to us, he gave to us without receiving anything from us. These two criteria are like the columns of true love: works and self-giving.” In explaining the meaning of these two criteria, the Holy Father remarked that Jesus’ way of giving himself is well rendered by the figure of the Good Samaritan. “Today,” he said, “the liturgy shows us the love of God in the figure of the shepherd. In the responsorial canticle we prayed that beautiful psalm [22]: The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord reveals himself to his people also as a shepherd.”

But, the Pope wondered, “how does the Lord act as a shepherd?” And he explained: “The Lord tells us so many things, but I will dwell on just two. The first is found in the book of the prophet Ezekiel: Behold, I myself will search for my sheep, I will review them. To review them means that he knows them all, and by name. To review them. And Jesus tells us the same thing: I know my sheep. He knows them one by one, by name. This is how God knows us: he does not know us as a group, but one by one. For,” the Bishop of Rome further explained, “love is not an abstract love, or a general love for everyone; it is a love for each one. And this is how God loves us.”

A God “who draws near out of love and who walks with his people. And this journey reaches an unimaginable point: one could never think that the Lord would make himself one of us and walk with us, remain in his Church, remain in the Eucharist, remain in his word, remain in the poor, and remain with us as we walk. Such is closeness. The shepherd close to his flock, to his sheep, whom he knows one by one.”

Then, dwelling on the other attitude of God’s love, the Pope remarked that it is spoken of by “the prophet Ezekiel, but also by the Gospel: I will go in search of the lost sheep and bring back to the fold the one that has strayed; I will bind up the one that is injured and heal the one that is sick; I will care for the one that is fat and strong; I will shepherd them with justice and tenderness. The Lord loves us with tenderness. The Lord knows this beautiful science of the caress. The tenderness of God: he does not love us in words; he draws near, and by being close to us, he gives us his love with all possible tenderness.” Closeness and tenderness are therefore “the two aspects of the Lord’s love, who draws near and gives all his love even in the smallest things, with tenderness.” And yet it is “a strong love. For closeness and tenderness show us the strength of God’s love.”

This may seem a heresy, but the truth is greater: it is more difficult to let ourselves be loved by God than to love him! This, then, is the way to return so much love to him: to open our heart and let ourselves be loved. To let him draw near to us, and to feel him close. To let him be tender, to let him caress us.” This, he concluded, “is very difficult: to let ourselves be loved by him. And this is perhaps what we must ask today during the Mass: Lord, I want to love you, but teach me the difficult science, the difficult habit of letting myself be loved by you, of feeling you close and feeling you tender.”

Source: News.va