To believe in love

Pope Francis has just started a new initiative, of making short videos for each of his monthly prayer intentions. This month's video, the first one, ends with the statement, repeated: creo en el amor - I believe in love. It is a short, simple statement; only a few words, but within them lies depth and power.

What does it mean to believe in love? I believe it means to root one's life in a power stronger than hate, to live with hope and the firm conviction that goodness can and will overcome violence and hatred. It means to believe in the power and the promise of what happened on Calvary: a seemingly powerless, futile death which resulted in glorious new life, and a hate-filled piercing which unleashed a torrent of love. It means to want to live in love, to grow in love, and to want nothing more than to share this love, even - and especially - whenever love seems fragile and a forlorn hope.

Twenty years ago our Superior General at the time wrote something about believing in love. She said:

To believe in love means to believe in the power of the seed, which holds life within it, and to experience delight when the first green shoots appear. To believe in love means to respond to the call to remain in his love... And because we believe in love, our ability to fix our gaze, to contemplate, places us in the open heart, the birthplace of our spirituality.

Only those who have believed in love can direct their gaze toward the pierced Heart of Jesus. To enter this open heart means to be able to contemplate, to encounter real love, the meaning of life, mercy, compassion, the tenderness and hope so necessary to live committed to our mission today.

Only those who have believed in love can direct their gaze toward the pierced Heart of Jesus... Yes indeed, because without this belief in love, the pierced Heart of Jesus, which we experience in the pierced heart of our wounded world, would be truly unendurable. But we can gaze at that pierced Heart, enter into it, love it, because we know there is more to it than ugliness and pain - because we believe in love.

Tomorrow one of our novices makes her first vows as an RSCJ. However she expresses her motivations, dreams and desires, fundamentally she is doing this because she believes in love: believes in it enough to want to pledge her life to a God who is only Love, in a Society whose very name - 'of the Sacred Heart' - is love, and whose mission is a sharing and making known of that love. Please pray for her and for all of us, as we seek to live and strengthen our conviction:

Creo en el amor... I believe in love.