This is the only road to authentic fullness and happiness: “Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.”(5)Īs Pope St. Each of us is called to give himself away in service of God and of neighbor. Jn 15:13), Jesus offered his own life for all, even for his enemies, to transform their hearts.”(4)Įach of us is called by Christ to live and to experience and express this kind of self-less love: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt. If laying down one’s life for one’s friends is the greatest proof of love (cf. 3:2).Īs Jesus Christ revealed through his life and especially through his death on the Cross, true and divine love is the sacrificial yet fruitful gift of self: “The clearest proof of the reliability of Christ’s love is to be found in his dying for our sake.
In this life, we realize this call by growing in charity, the theological virtue that empowers and transforms us into the likeness of Christ himself so that we can love God, our neighbors, and ourselves, as God himself loves us.2 In the life to come, we will be perfected in this vocation when God so elevates us that we will be able to see him face to face.3 On that day when we directly experience God, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn.
One of the astonishing revelations of the Gospel is that every human person is created for both human and divine love, because every human person is made for a Triune God who is infinite mercy and love: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.”1 This is our great vocation, to enjoy the friendship of God and of our neighbor, whether he is a friend or a stranger, in God. Message of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on the occasion of the opening of the Lenten Season 2016 A Pastoral Response to the Grave Evil of Pornography
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