Learning to truly love

When I look around, I can see that people are starving to be loved. We have a lot of relationships with many people: we have associations, small groups with the same hobby, facebook pages, but all those things cannot fill the simple yearning in a human heart that desires to be loved. Why? Maybe my answer is wrong, but I think it is because we do not have much time to spend with God in silence.

God is love so He is the best teacher to learn from about love. In prayer time, what happens is a very deep exchange of ourselves with the presence of God. It is the time when God comes because our heart is open. It absorbs this presence to the very bottom of our being. It is not me anymore, it is God who lives in me. In our society so much focus is put on personal achievements that this concept of prayer seems to be very foreign and we shouldn't be surprised by all the growing hate and the desire to be nice, but not to love.

St. John Paul II wrote in Dives in Misericordia: "It is love which not only creates the good, but also grants participation in the very life of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For he who loves desires to give himself." To better understand the meaning of these words, it is necessary to stop our life for the moment and look at God himself. In the silence of our hearts, we can see the little baby in the manger and the crucified Savior at the same time. But everything that is in between leads to the Resurrection.

Let's learn this Advent how to love by giving ourselves to God first and then to our neighbor. I think this is the only way that we can change the world.