“God's love
has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit”
–
Romans 5:5
The fire
of Christ’s love on the cross has not
burnt out. It is not something
of the past, of two thousand years ago, of
which only the memory lives on. It exists now;
it is alive. If it were necessary, Christ
would die again for us because the love for
which he died continues unchanged.
“I am more a friend to you than such and such
a one,” Christ tells us as once he told the
great mathematician and philosopher Blaise
Pascal. “I have done for you more than they;
they would not have suffered what I have
suffered from you, and they would not have
died for you as I have done in the time of
your infidelities and cruelties, and as I am
ready to do, and do, among my elect” (Pensées,
553).
Jesus has run out of signs for
his love. There is nothing more he can do to
show his love, for there is no greater sign
than to give one’s life. But he has run out of
signs for his love, not of love itself.
Now his love is entrusted to a special sign, a
different one, a sign that is real, a Person:
the Holy Spirit. “God’s love”—the love we now
know—“has been poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). It is therefore
a living and real love, just as the Holy
Spirit is living and real.
Where the other Evangelists say that Jesus
“uttered a loud cry and breathed his last”
(Mark 15:37; cf. Matthew 27:50), John says
that Jesus “bowed his head and gave up his
spirit” (John 19:30). That is, he not only
breathed his last, but he gave the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit, his Spirit. Now we know what was
in the loud cry that Jesus gave us as he was
dying. Its mystery has finally been revealed!
Why did Jesus die for your
sins?
Why did Jesus die for our sins?
The answer was like a flash of sunlight
illuminating the faith of the Church: because
he loved us!
“Christ loved us and gave himself up for us”
(Ephesians 5:2); “the Son of
God . . . loved me and
gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20); “Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her”
(Ephesians 5:25).
It is an indisputable primordial truth
pervading everything, and it applies both to
the Church as a whole and to every individual.
St. John the Evangelist, the last to write his
gospel, dates this revelation back to Christ
when he was on earth: “Greater love has no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends. You are my friends” (John
15:13-14).
This answer to the “why” of
Christ’s passion is really final and allows no
further questions. He loved us because he
loved us—that’s all there is to it! In fact,
there is no “why” to God’s love; it is a free
gift. It is the only love in the world that is
truly and totally free, that asks nothing for
itself (he already has everything!) but only
gives. Or rather, he gives himself. “In this
is love, not that we loved God but that he
loved us. . . . We love,
because he first loved us” (1 John 4:10, 19).
Jesus, then, suffered and died
freely, out of love. Not by chance, not from
necessity, not because of any obscure forces
or historical reasons overwhelming him without
his knowledge or against his will. If anyone
asserts this, they are nullifying the gospel,
removing its soul, because the gospel is
nothing other than the good news of God’s love
in Christ Jesus. Not only the gospel, but the
entire Bible is nothing other than the news of
God’s mysterious, incomprehensible love for
people.
If the whole of Scripture were to start
talking at once, if by some miracle the
written words were transformed into speech,
that voice would be more powerful than the
waves of the sea, and it would cry out: “God
loves you!”
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa,
O.F.M. Cap. (born July
22, 1934) is an Italian Catholic
priest in the Order of Friars Minor
Capuchin.
He has devoted his ministry to
preaching and writing. He is a
Scripture scholar, theologian, and
noted author of numerous books. Since
1980 he has served as the Preacher to
the Papal Household under Pope John
Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope
Francis. He is a noted ecumenist and
frequent
worldwide speaker, and a member of the
Catholic Delegation for the Dialogue
with the
Pentecostal Churches.
