God’s Kingdom Is Among You
What attracts your heart? May I say that it is God’s love? But what is God’s love? It is not
something vague, some generic feeling. God’s love has a name and a face: Jesus Christ. Love for God
is made manifest in Jesus, the gift of the Father among us. It is a love that gives value and beauty to
everything else; a love that gives strength to the family, to work, to study, to friendship, to art, to all human activity. It even gives meaning to negative experiences, because this love allows us to move beyond these experiences, to go beyond them, not to remain prisoners of evil, always opening us to hope. In this way all our labors and even our failures find meaning. —Pope Francis: Words of Grace