Pope Franics: God Excludes No One from his Love

by Jael SC · April 7, 2016

By Carol Glatz – Jesus brought humanity God’s merciful, saving love, not hatred and animosity, Pope Francis said. “Jesus makes visible a love open to everyone – nobody excluded – open to everyone without bounds,” he said at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis greets the crowd during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican April 6. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

During his general audience, the pope continued a series of talks dedicated to God’s mercy and reflected on how this mercy was fulfilled in Jesus.

The New Testament “is truly the ‘Gospel of mercy’ because Jesus is mercy,” he said.

At every moment in his life, Jesus showed love to everyone: a love that is “pure, free and absolute,” the pope said.

Jesus began his mission of mercy with his baptism in the Jordan River, the pope said, waiting in line “with the sinners, he wasn’t ashamed, he was there with everyone, with the sinners, to get baptised.”

He could have begun his public ministry with lots of fanfare, “in the splendor of the temple,” to the “blast of trumpets” or “in the garments of a judge,” but he didn’t, the pope said. Instead he chose to be with the people, taking on “the human condition, spurred by solidarity and compassion.”

His driving purpose was “to bring everyone the love of God who saves; Jesus didn’t bring hatred, he didn’t bring animosity, he brought us love, a great love, an open heart for everyone, for all of us,” the pope said.

Jesus accompanied the least and the marginalised, sharing with them “the mercy of God who is forgiveness, joy and new life. The son sent by the father is truly the beginning of the time of mercy for all of humanity.”

The great mystery of this love is seen in the crucified Christ, the pope said, because “it is on the cross that Jesus offered to the father’s mercy the sin of the world, everyone’s sins, my sins, your sins” and took those sins away.

“Nothing and no one remains excluded from this sacrificial prayer of Jesus,” which means “we mustn’t be afraid to acknowledge and confess ourselves as sinners,” he said.

So often “we say, ‘well, that one is a sinner, this one did such-and-such.’ We accuse others of being sinners, and you? Each one of us should ask ourselves, ‘Yes, that one is a sinner, and me?'”

“We are all sinners, but we are all forgiven,” Pope Francis said. “We all have the possibility of receiving this forgiveness that is God’s mercy.”

The sacrament of reconciliation, he said, gives the penitent heart “the strength of the forgiveness that flows from the cross and renews in our lives the grace of mercy that Jesus obtained for us.”

People never need to fear their burdens and sins because “the power of love of the crucified one knows no obstacles and never runs out” as it wipes away human sin, he said.