Chris Stein, Reflection May 7, 2021 in His Encyclical Redemptor

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Chris Stein, Reflection May 7, 2021 In his encyclical Redemptor hominis, Pope John Paul II writes: “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This, as has already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer "fully reveals man to himself". Jesus has revealed love to us. We understand ourselves through Jesus and what He has shown us. A trap that we often fall into when we look at the lives of Jesus and the saints is that they were strange or that they are the exception to the normal. But it is actually in Jesus that we see the fullness of humanity. It is in Jesus that we see what it means to be truly human. Jesus is both fully God and fully man. It is Jesus who shows us how to live His commandment from today’s Gospel: “Love one another.” Jesus lived a life totally dedicated to love - first to loving His Father, and in loving the Father, doing His will in loving and saving humanity. Everything that Jesus does is directed towards authentic Love of the Father and love of humanity. And we must view love itself through Jesus - He shows us what true, authentic love is. We live in a world that desperately needs love. All of us here long to be loved. A world that craves love, but does not know how to find it. So often the world things it can be defined as a feeling, or a desire, or they try to replace the longing for love altogether, substituting power, wealth, pleasure, and so on in place of love. But we know these never satisfy and we are left unsatisfied, the world is unsatisfied. But as Christians we know what Love is and we know that it is the fulfillment of life: - Love is God becoming man. - Love is serving God and giving one’s life in gratitude to God. - Love is Jesus Christ dying for humanity on a cross. - Love is the changing of ordinary bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ for humanity to eat. Love is God. Love is Jesus Christ. So today, everyday, be Christ for one another..

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